Apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, apparatus for receiving broadcast signals, method for transmitting broadcast signals and method for receiving broadcast signals

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a method of transmitting broadcast signals. The method includes, processing input streams into BB (Base Band) frames of PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes), wherein the input streams include a plurality of input packets, wherein each of the input packets include a packet header including information about synchronization of the input streams, wherein the processing input streams into BB frames further includes compressing the packet headers of the input packets in the input streams, generating the BB frames by using the compressed input packets; encoding data of the PLPs; building at least one signal frame by mapping the encoded data of the PLPs; and modulating data in the built signal frame by OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method and transmitting the broadcast signals having the modulated data.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional PatentApplication Nos. 61/883,962 and 61/883,957, filed on Sep. 27, 2013,which are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an apparatus for transmitting broadcastsignals, an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals and methods fortransmitting and receiving broadcast signals.

Discussion of the Related Art

As analog broadcast signal transmission comes to an end, varioustechnologies for transmitting/receiving digital broadcast signals arebeing developed. A digital broadcast signal may include a larger amountof video/audio data than an analog broadcast signal and further includevarious types of additional data in addition to the video/audio data.

That is, a digital broadcast system can provide HD (high definition)images, multi-channel audio and various additional services. However,data transmission efficiency for transmission of large amounts of data,robustness of transmission/reception networks and network flexibility inconsideration of mobile reception equipment need to be improved fordigital broadcast.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an apparatus fortransmitting broadcast signals and an apparatus for receiving broadcastsignals for future broadcast services and methods for transmitting andreceiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and methodfor transmitting broadcast signals to multiplex data of a broadcasttransmission/reception system providing two or more different broadcastservices in a time domain and transmit the multiplexed data through thesame RF signal bandwidth and an apparatus and method for receivingbroadcast signals corresponding thereto.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus fortransmitting broadcast signals, an apparatus for receiving broadcastsignals and methods for transmitting and receiving broadcast signals toclassify data corresponding to services by components, transmit datacorresponding to each component as a data pipe, receive and process thedata

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatusfor transmitting broadcast signals, an apparatus for receiving broadcastsignals and methods for transmitting and receiving broadcast signals tosignal signaling information necessary to provide broadcast signals.

To achieve the object and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, thepresent invention provides a method of transmitting broadcast signals.The method of transmitting broadcast signals includes processing inputstreams into BB (Base Band) frames of PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes),wherein the input streams include a plurality of input packets, whereineach of the input packets include a packet header including informationabout synchronization of the input streams, wherein the processing inputstreams into BB frames further includes compressing the packet headersof the input packets in the input streams, generating the BB frames byusing the compressed input packets; encoding data of the PLPs; buildingat least one signal frame by mapping the encoded data of the PLPs; andmodulating data in the built signal frame by OFDM (Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiplexing) method and transmitting the broadcast signalshaving the modulated data.

Preferably, the information about synchronization in each of the inputpackets are removed in step of the compressing the packet headers.

Preferably, when at least two successive input packets in the inputstreams have same packet headers except a continuity counter field, thecompressing the packet headers further includes: processing a packetheader of first input packet of the at least two successive inputpackets, deleting packet headers of the other input packets of the atleast two successive input packets.

Preferably, the continuity counter fields in each of the at least twosuccessive input packets increases in order from the continuity counterfield of the first input packet of the at least two successive inputpackets.

Preferably, the processing a packet header of first input packet furtherincludes replacing the information about synchronization in the firstinput packet to a packet number field, wherein the packet number fieldindicates a number of the other input packets that the packet headersare deleted.

Preferably, the encoding data of the PLPs further includes, encoding theBB frames of the PLPs with LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) codes, bitinterleaving the LDPC encoded data in the PLPs, mapping the bitinterleaved data onto constellations, MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output)encoding the mapped data, and time interleaving the MIMO encoded data.

In other aspect, the present invention provides a method of receivingbroadcast signals. The method of receiving broadcast signals includesreceiving the broadcast signals having at least one signal frame anddemodulating data in the at least one signal frame by OFDM (OrthogonalFrequency Division Multiplexing) method; parsing the at least one signalframe by demapping data of PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes); decoding thedata of the PLPs; and processing BB (Base Band) frames of the PLPs tooutput output streams, wherein the processing BB frames of the PLPsfurther includes decompressing a compressed packet header of datapackets in the BB frames, generating the output streams by using thedecompressed data packets.

Preferably, information about synchronization of the output streams areregenerated in step of the decompressing a compressed packet header, foreach of the data packets.

Preferably, the decompressing a compressed packet header of data packetsfurther includes: regenerating packet headers for each of the datapackets by using a packet number field in the compressed packet header,wherein the packet number field indicates a number of the data packetsthat the packet headers are deleted.

Preferably, the regenerated packet headers for each of the data packetsinclude continuity counter fields, wherein the continuity counter fieldsin the regenerated packet headers increases in order from a continuitycounter field in the compressed packet header.

Preferably, the decompressing a compressed packet header of data packetsfurther includes: replacing the packet number field in the compressedpacket header to the information about synchronization, for thecompressed packet header.

Preferably, the decoding the data of the PLPs further includes, timedeinterleaving the data of the PLPs, MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output)decoding the time deinterleaved data of the PLPs, demapping the MIMOdecoded data from constellations, bit deinterleaving the demapped data,and processing the bit deinterleaved data with LDPC (Low Density ParityCheck) codes to output BB frames.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus fortransmitting broadcast signals. The apparatus for transmitting broadcastsignals includes an input formatting module configured to process inputstreams into BB (Base Band) frames of PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes),wherein the input streams include a plurality of input packets, whereineach of the input packets include a packet header including informationabout synchronization of the input streams, wherein the input formattingmodule further configured to compress the packet headers of the inputpackets in the input streams, and generate the BB frames by using thecompressed input packets; an encoding module configured to encode dataof the PLPs; a frame building module configured to build at least onesignal frame by mapping the encoded data of the PLPs; and a modulatingmodule configured to modulate data in the built signal frame by OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method and transmit thebroadcast signals having the modulated data.

Preferably, the information about synchronization in each of the inputpackets are removed by compressing the packet headers.

Preferably, when at least two successive input packets in the inputstreams have same packet headers except a continuity counter field, thecompressing the packet headers further includes: processing a packetheader of first input packet of the at least two successive inputpackets, deleting packet headers of the other input packets of the atleast two successive input packets.

Preferably, the continuity counter fields in each of the at least twosuccessive input packets increases in order from the continuity counterfield of the first input packet of the at least two successive inputpackets.

Preferably, the processing a packet header of first input packet furtherincludes replacing the information about synchronization in the firstinput packet to a packet number field, wherein the packet number fieldindicates a number of the other input packets that the packet headersare deleted.

Preferably, the encoding module further includes, a LDPC block forencoding the BB frames of the PLPs with LDPC (Low Density Parity Check)codes, a bit interleaving block for bit interleaving the LDPC encodeddata in the PLPs, a constellation mapping block for mapping the bitinterleaved data onto constellations, a MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output)block for MIMO encoding the mapped data, and a time interleaving blockfor time interleaving the MIMO encoded data.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus forreceiving broadcast signals. The apparatus for receiving broadcastsignals includes a receiving module configured to receive the broadcastsignals having at least one signal frame and demodulate data in the atleast one signal frame by OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing) method; a parsing module configured to parse the at leastone signal frame by demapping data of PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes); adecoding module configured to decode the data of the PLPs; and an outputprocessing module configured to process BB (Base Band) frames of thePLPs to output output streams, wherein the output processing modulefurther configured to decompress a compressed packet header of datapackets in the BB frames, generate the output streams by using thedecompressed data packets.

Preferably, information about synchronization of the output streams areregenerated by decompressing the compressed packet header, for each ofthe data packets.

Preferably, the decompressing a compressed packet header of data packetsfurther includes: regenerating packet headers for each of the datapackets by using a packet number field in the compressed packet header,wherein the packet number field indicates a number of the data packetsthat the packet headers are deleted.

Preferably, the regenerated packet headers for each of the data packetsinclude continuity counter fields, wherein the continuity counter fieldsin the regenerated packet headers increases in order from a continuitycounter field in the compressed packet header.

Preferably, the decompressing the compressed packet header of datapackets further includes: replacing the packet number field in thecompressed packet header to the information about synchronization, forthe compressed packet header.

Preferably, the decoding module further includes, a time deinterleavingblock for time deinterleaving the data of the PLPs, a MIMO (Multi InputMulti Output) decoding block for MIMO decoding the time deinterleaveddata of the PLPs, a constellation demapping block for demapping the MIMOdecoded data from constellations, a bit deinterleaving block for bitdeinterleaving the demapped data, and a LDPC decoding block forprocessing the bit deinterleaved data with LDPC (Low Density ParityCheck) codes to output BB frames.

The present invention can process data according to servicecharacteristics to control QoS (Quality of Services) for each service orservice component, thereby providing various broadcast services.

The present invention can achieve transmission flexibility bytransmitting various broadcast services through the same RF signalbandwidth.

The present invention can improve data transmission efficiency andincrease robustness of transmission/reception of broadcast signals usinga MIMO system.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide broadcastsignal transmission and reception methods and apparatus capable ofreceiving digital broadcast signals without error even with mobilereception equipment or in an indoor environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for transmittingbroadcast signals for future broadcast services according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an input formatting block according to one embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an input formatting block according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an input formatting block according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a BICM block according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a BICM block according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a frame building block according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates an OFMD generation block according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for receiving broadcastsignals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a frame structure according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates a signaling hierarchy structure of the frameaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 illustrates preamble signaling data according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates PLS1 data according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 14 illustrates PLS2 data according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 15 illustrates PLS2 data according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 16 illustrates a logical structure of a frame according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 illustrates PLS mapping according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 18 illustrates EAC mapping according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 19 illustrates FIC mapping according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 20 illustrates a type of DP according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 21 illustrates DP mapping according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 22 illustrates an FEC structure according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 23 illustrates a bit interleaving according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 24 illustrates a cell-word demultiplexing according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 illustrates a time interleaving according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 26 illustrates the basic operation of a twisted row-column blockinterleaver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 illustrates an operation of a twisted row-column blockinterleaver according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 illustrates a diagonal-wise reading pattern of a twistedrow-column block interleaver according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 29 illustrates interleaved XFECBLOCKs from each interleaving arrayaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30 shows a mode adaptation module according to another embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 31 shows a header compression block according to another embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 32 shows an output processor according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 33 shows a header decompression block according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 34 illustrates an initial packet header which is not deleted in aheader compression scheme #1 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 35 illustrates compression and restoration processes according tothe header compression scheme #1 in the embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 36 illustrates an initial packet header which is not deleted in aheader compression scheme #2 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 37 illustrates compression and restoration processes according tothe header compression scheme #2 in the embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 38 illustrates a method of transmitting broadcast signal accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 39 illustrates a method of receiving broadcast signal according toan embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. The detailed description, which will be given below withreference to the accompanying drawings, is intended to explain exemplaryembodiments of the present invention, rather than to show the onlyembodiments that can be implemented according to the present invention.The following detailed description includes specific details in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, itwill be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present inventionmay be practiced without such specific details.

Although most terms used in the present invention have been selectedfrom general ones widely used in the art, some terms have beenarbitrarily selected by the applicant and their meanings are explainedin detail in the following description as needed. Thus, the presentinvention should be understood based upon the intended meanings of theterms rather than their simple names or meanings.

The present invention provides apparatuses and methods for transmittingand receiving broadcast signals for future broadcast services. Futurebroadcast services according to an embodiment of the present inventioninclude a terrestrial broadcast service, a mobile broadcast service, aUHDTV service, etc.

The apparatuses and methods for transmitting according to an embodimentof the present invention may be categorized into a base profile for theterrestrial broadcast service, a handheld profile for the mobilebroadcast service and an advanced profile for the UHDTV service. In thiscase, the base profile can be used as a profile for both the terrestrialbroadcast service and the mobile broadcast service. That is, the baseprofile can be used to define a concept of a profile which includes themobile profile. This can be changed according to intention of thedesigner.

The present invention may process broadcast signals for the futurebroadcast services through non-MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) orMIMO according to one embodiment. A non-MIMO scheme according to anembodiment of the present invention may include a MISO (Multiple InputSingle Output) scheme, a SISO (Single Input Single Output) scheme, etc.

While MISO or MIMO uses two antennas in the following for convenience ofdescription, the present invention is applicable to systems using two ormore antennas.

The present invention may defines three physical layer (PL) profiles(base, handheld and advanced profiles) each optimized to minimizereceiver complexity while attaining the performance required for aparticular use case. The physical layer (PHY) profiles are subsets ofall configurations that a corresponding receiver should implement.

The three PHY profiles share most of the functional blocks but differslightly in specific blocks and/or parameters. Additional PHY profilescan be defined in the future. For the system evolution, future profilescan also be multiplexed with the existing profiles in a single RFchannel through a future extension frame (FEF). The details of each PHYprofile are described below.

1. Base Profile

The base profile represents a main use case for fixed receiving devicesthat are usually connected to a roof-top antenna. The base profile alsoincludes portable devices that could be transported to a place butbelong to a relatively stationary reception category. Use of the baseprofile could be extended to handheld devices or even vehicular by someimproved implementations, but those use cases are not expected for thebase profile receiver operation.

Target SNR range of reception is from approximately 10 to 20 dB, whichincludes the 15 dB SNR reception capability of the existing broadcastsystem (e.g. ATSC A/53). The receiver complexity and power consumptionis not as critical as in the battery-operated handheld devices, whichwill use the handheld profile. Key system parameters for the baseprofile are listed in below table 1.

TABLE 1 LDPC codeword length 16K, 64K bits Constellation size 4~10 bpcu(bits per channel use) Time de-interleaving memory size ≦2¹⁹ data cellsPilot patterns Pilot pattern for fixed reception FFT size 16K, 32Kpoints

2. Handheld Profile

The handheld profile is designed for use in handheld and vehiculardevices that operate with battery power. The devices can be moving withpedestrian or vehicle speed. The power consumption as well as thereceiver complexity is very important for the implementation of thedevices of the handheld profile. The target SNR range of the handheldprofile is approximately 0 to 10 dB, but can be configured to reachbelow 0 dB when intended for deeper indoor reception.

In addition to low SNR capability, resilience to the Doppler Effectcaused by receiver mobility is the most important performance attributeof the handheld profile. Key system parameters for the handheld profileare listed in the below table 2.

TABLE 2 LDPC codeword length 16K bits Constellation size 2~8 bpcu Timede-interleaving memory size ≦2¹⁸ data cells Pilot patterns Pilotpatterns for mobile and indoor reception FFT size 8K, 16K points

3. Advanced Profile

The advanced profile provides highest channel capacity at the cost ofmore implementation complexity. This profile requires using MIMOtransmission and reception, and UHDTV service is a target use case forwhich this profile is specifically designed. The increased capacity canalso be used to allow an increased number of services in a givenbandwidth, e.g., multiple SDTV or HDTV services.

The target SNR range of the advanced profile is approximately 20 to 30dB. MIMO transmission may initially use existing elliptically-polarizedtransmission equipment, with extension to full-power cross-polarizedtransmission in the future. Key system parameters for the advancedprofile are listed in below table 3.

TABLE 3 LDPC codeword length 16K, 64K bits Constellation size 8~12 bpcuTime de-interleaving memory size ≦2¹⁹ data cells Pilot patterns Pilotpattern for fixed reception FFT size 16K, 32K points

In this case, the base profile can be used as a profile for both theterrestrial broadcast service and the mobile broadcast service. That is,the base profile can be used to define a concept of a profile whichincludes the mobile profile. Also, the advanced profile can be dividedadvanced profile for a base profile with MIMO and advanced profile for ahandheld profile with MIMO. Moreover, the three profiles can be changedaccording to intention of the designer.

The following terms and definitions may apply to the present invention.The following terms and definitions can be changed according to design.

auxiliary stream: sequence of cells carrying data of as yet undefinedmodulation and coding, which may be used for future extensions or asrequired by broadcasters or network operators

base data pipe: data pipe that carries service signaling data

baseband frame (or BBFRAME): set of K_(bch) bits which form the input toone FEC encoding process (BCH and LDPC encoding)

cell: modulation value that is carried by one carrier of the OFDMtransmission

coded block: LDPC-encoded block of PLS1 data or one of the LDPC-encodedblocks of PLS2 data

data pipe: logical channel in the physical layer that carries servicedata or related metadata, which may carry one or multiple service(s) orservice component(s).

data pipe unit: a basic unit for allocating data cells to a DP in aframe.

data symbol: OFDM symbol in a frame which is not a preamble symbol (theframe signaling symbol and frame edge symbol is included in the datasymbol)

DP_ID: this 8-bit field identifies uniquely a DP within the systemidentified by the SYSTEM_ID

dummy cell: cell carrying a pseudo-random value used to fill theremaining capacity not used for PLS signaling, DPs or auxiliary streams

emergency alert channel: part of a frame that carries EAS informationdata

frame: physical layer time slot that starts with a preamble and endswith a frame edge symbol

frame repetition unit: a set of frames belonging to same or differentphysical layer profile including a FEF, which is repeated eight times ina super-frame

fast information channel: a logical channel in a frame that carries themapping information between a service and the corresponding base DP

FECBLOCK: set of LDPC-encoded bits of a DP data

FFT size: nominal FFT size used for a particular mode, equal to theactive symbol period T_(S) expressed in cycles of the elementary periodT

frame signaling symbol: OFDM symbol with higher pilot density used atthe start of a frame in certain combinations of FFT size, guard intervaland scattered pilot pattern, which carries a part of the PLS data

frame edge symbol: OFDM symbol with higher pilot density used at the endof a frame in certain combinations of FFT size, guard interval andscattered pilot pattern

frame-group: the set of all the frames having the same PHY profile typein a super-frame.

future extension frame: physical layer time slot within the super-framethat could be used for future extension, which starts with a preamble

Futurecast UTB system: proposed physical layer broadcasting system, ofwhich the input is one or more MPEG2-TS or IP or general stream(s) andof which the output is an RF signal

input stream: A stream of data for an ensemble of services delivered tothe end users by the system.

normal data symbol: data symbol excluding the frame signaling symbol andthe frame edge symbol

PHY profile: subset of all configurations that a corresponding receivershould implement

PLS: physical layer signaling data consisting of PLS1 and PLS2

PLS1: a first set of PLS data carried in the FSS symbols having a fixedsize, coding and modulation, which carries basic information about thesystem as well as the parameters needed to decode the PLS2

NOTE: PLS1 data remains constant for the duration of a frame-group.

PLS2: a second set of PLS data transmitted in the FSS symbol, whichcarries more detailed PLS data about the system and the DPs

PLS2 dynamic data: PLS2 data that may dynamically change frame-by-frame

PLS2 static data: PLS2 data that remains static for the duration of aframe-group

preamble signaling data: signaling data carried by the preamble symboland used to identify the basic mode of the system

preamble symbol: fixed-length pilot symbol that carries basic PLS dataand is located in the beginning of a frame

NOTE: The preamble symbol is mainly used for fast initial band scan todetect the system signal, its timing, frequency offset, and FFT-size.

reserved for future use: not defined by the present document but may bedefined in future

super-frame: set of eight frame repetition units

time interleaving block (TI block): set of cells within which timeinterleaving is carried out, corresponding to one use of the timeinterleaver memory

TI group: unit over which dynamic capacity allocation for a particularDP is carried out, made up of an integer, dynamically varying number ofXFECBLOCKs.

NOTE: The TI group may be mapped directly to one frame or may be mappedto multiple frames. It may contain one or more TI blocks.

Type 1 DP: DP of a frame where all DPs are mapped into the frame in TDMfashion

Type 2 DP: DP of a frame where all DPs are mapped into the frame in FDMfashion

XFECBLOCK: set of N cells carrying all the bits of one LDPC FECBLOCK

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for transmittingbroadcast signals for future broadcast services according to anembodiment of the present invention.

The apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcastservices according to an embodiment of the present invention can includean input formatting block 1000, a BICM (Bit interleaved coding &modulation) block 1010, a frame structure block 1020, an OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) generation block 1030 and asignaling generation block 1040. A description will be given of theoperation of each module of the apparatus for transmitting broadcastsignals.

IP stream/packets and MPEG2-TS are the main input formats, other streamtypes are handled as General Streams. In addition to these data inputs,Management Information is input to control the scheduling and allocationof the corresponding bandwidth for each input stream. One or multiple TSstream(s), IP stream(s) and/or General Stream(s) inputs aresimultaneously allowed.

The input formatting block 1000 can demultiplex each input stream intoone or multiple data pipe(s), to each of which an independent coding andmodulation is applied. The data pipe (DP) is the basic unit forrobustness control, thereby affecting quality-of-service (QoS). One ormultiple service(s) or service component(s) can be carried by a singleDP. Details of operations of the input formatting block 1000 will bedescribed later.

The data pipe is a logical channel in the physical layer that carriesservice data or related metadata, which may carry one or multipleservice(s) or service component(s).

Also, the data pipe unit: a basic unit for allocating data cells to a DPin a frame.

In the BICM block 1010, parity data is added for error correction andthe encoded bit streams are mapped to complex-value constellationsymbols. The symbols are interleaved across a specific interleavingdepth that is used for the corresponding DP. For the advanced profile,MIMO encoding is performed in the BICM block 1010 and the additionaldata path is added at the output for MIMO transmission. Details ofoperations of the BICM block 1010 will be described later.

The Frame Building block 1020 can map the data cells of the input DPsinto the OFDM symbols within a frame. After mapping, the frequencyinterleaving is used for frequency-domain diversity, especially tocombat frequency-selective fading channels. Details of operations of theFrame Building block 1020 will be described later.

After inserting a preamble at the beginning of each frame, the OFDMGeneration block 1030 can apply conventional OFDM modulation having acyclic prefix as guard interval. For antenna space diversity, adistributed MISO scheme is applied across the transmitters. In addition,a Peak-to-Average Power Reduction (PAPR) scheme is performed in the timedomain. For flexible network planning, this proposal provides a set ofvarious FFT sizes, guard interval lengths and corresponding pilotpatterns. Details of operations of the OFDM Generation block 1030 willbe described later.

The Signaling Generation block 1040 can create physical layer signalinginformation used for the operation of each functional block. Thissignaling information is also transmitted so that the services ofinterest are properly recovered at the receiver side. Details ofoperations of the Signaling Generation block 1040 will be describedlater.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 illustrate the input formatting block 1000 according toembodiments of the present invention. A description will be given ofeach figure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an input formatting block according to one embodimentof the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an input formatting module whenthe input signal is a single input stream.

The input formatting block illustrated in FIG. 2 corresponds to anembodiment of the input formatting block 1000 described with referenceto FIG. 1.

The input to the physical layer may be composed of one or multiple datastreams. Each data stream is carried by one DP. The mode adaptationmodules slice the incoming data stream into data fields of the basebandframe (BBF). The system supports three types of input data streams:MPEG2-TS, Internet protocol (IP) and Generic stream (GS). MPEG2-TS ischaracterized by fixed length (188 byte) packets with the first bytebeing a sync-byte (0x47). An IP stream is composed of variable length IPdatagram packets, as signaled within IP packet headers. The systemsupports both IPv4 and IPv6 for the IP stream. GS may be composed ofvariable length packets or constant length packets, signaled withinencapsulation packet headers.

(a) shows a mode adaptation block 2000 and a stream adaptation 2010 forsignal DP and (b) shows a PLS generation block 2020 and a PLS scrambler2030 for generating and processing PLS data. A description will be givenof the operation of each block.

The Input Stream Splitter splits the input TS, IP, GS streams intomultiple service or service component (audio, video, etc.) streams. Themode adaptation module 2010 is comprised of a CRC Encoder, BB (baseband)Frame Slicer, and BB Frame Header Insertion block.

The CRC Encoder provides three kinds of CRC encoding for error detectionat the user packet (UP) level, i.e., CRC-8, CRC-16, and CRC-32. Thecomputed CRC bytes are appended after the UP. CRC-8 is used for TSstream and CRC-32 for IP stream. If the GS stream doesn't provide theCRC encoding, the proposed CRC encoding should be applied.

BB Frame Slicer maps the input into an internal logical-bit format. Thefirst received bit is defined to be the MSB. The BB Frame Slicerallocates a number of input bits equal to the available data fieldcapacity. To allocate a number of input bits equal to the BBF payload,the UP packet stream is sliced to fit the data field of BBF.

BB Frame Header Insertion block can insert fixed length BBF header of 2bytes is inserted in front of the BB Frame. The BBF header is composedof STUFFI (1 bit), SYNCD (13 bits), and RFU (2 bits). In addition to thefixed 2-Byte BBF header, BBF can have an extension field (1 or 3 bytes)at the end of the 2-byte BBF header.

The stream adaptation 2010 is comprised of stuffing insertion block andBB scrambler.

The stuffing insertion block can insert stuffing field into a payload ofa BB frame. If the input data to the stream adaptation is sufficient tofill a BB-Frame, STUFFI is set to ‘0’ and the BBF has no stuffing field.Otherwise STUFFI is set to ‘1’ and the stuffing field is insertedimmediately after the BBF header. The stuffing field comprises two bytesof the stuffing field header and a variable size of stuffing data.

The BB scrambler scrambles complete BBF for energy dispersal. Thescrambling sequence is synchronous with the BBF. The scrambling sequenceis generated by the feed-back shift register.

The PLS generation block 2020 can generate physical layer signaling(PLS) data. The PLS provides the receiver with a means to accessphysical layer DPs. The PLS data consists of PLS1 data and PLS2 data.

The PLS1 data is a first set of PLS data carried in the FSS symbols inthe frame having a fixed size, coding and modulation, which carriesbasic information about the system as well as the parameters needed todecode the PLS2 data. The PLS1 data provides basic transmissionparameters including parameters required to enable the reception anddecoding of the PLS2 data. Also, the PLS1 data remains constant for theduration of a frame-group.

The PLS2 data is a second set of PLS data transmitted in the FSS symbol,which carries more detailed PLS data about the system and the DPs. ThePLS2 contains parameters that provide sufficient information for thereceiver to decode the desired DP. The PLS2 signaling further consistsof two types of parameters, PLS2 Static data (PLS2-STAT data) and PLS2dynamic data (PLS2-DYN data). The PLS2 Static data is PLS2 data thatremains static for the duration of a frame-group and the PLS2 dynamicdata is PLS2 data that may dynamically change frame-by-frame.

Details of the PLS data will be described later.

The PLS scrambler 2030 can scramble the generated PLS data for energydispersal.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks havingsimilar or identical functions.

FIG. 3 illustrates an input formatting block according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

The input formatting block illustrated in FIG. 3 corresponds to anembodiment of the input formatting block 1000 described with referenceto FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a mode adaptation block of the input formatting block whenthe input signal corresponds to multiple input streams.

The mode adaptation block of the input formatting block for processingthe multiple input streams can independently process the multiple inputstreams.

Referring to FIG. 3, the mode adaptation block for respectivelyprocessing the multiple input streams can include an input streamsplitter 3000, an input stream synchronizer 3010, a compensating delayblock 3020, a null packet deletion block 3030, a head compression block3040, a CRC encoder 3050, a BB frame slicer 3060 and a BB headerinsertion block 3070. Description will be given of each block of themode adaptation block.

Operations of the CRC encoder 3050, BB frame slicer 3060 and BB headerinsertion block 3070 correspond to those of the CRC encoder, BB frameslicer and BB header insertion block described with reference to FIG. 2and thus description thereof is omitted.

The input stream splitter 3000 can split the input TS, IP, GS streamsinto multiple service or service component (audio, video, etc.) streams.

The input stream synchronizer 3010 may be referred as ISSY. The ISSY canprovide suitable means to guarantee Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and constantend-to-end transmission delay for any input data format. The ISSY isalways used for the case of multiple DPs carrying TS, and optionallyused for multiple DPs carrying GS streams.

The compensating delay block 3020 can delay the split TS packet streamfollowing the insertion of ISSY information to allow a TS packetrecombining mechanism without requiring additional memory in thereceiver.

The null packet deletion block 3030, is used only for the TS inputstream case. Some TS input streams or split TS streams may have a largenumber of null-packets present in order to accommodate VBR (variablebit-rate) services in a CBR TS stream. In this case, in order to avoidunnecessary transmission overhead, null-packets can be identified andnot transmitted. In the receiver, removed null-packets can bere-inserted in the exact place where they were originally by referenceto a deleted null-packet (DNP) counter that is inserted in thetransmission, thus guaranteeing constant bit-rate and avoiding the needfor time-stamp (PCR) updating.

The head compression block 3040 can provide packet header compression toincrease transmission efficiency for TS or IP input streams. Because thereceiver can have a priori information on certain parts of the header,this known information can be deleted in the transmitter.

For Transport Stream, the receiver has a-priori information about thesync-byte configuration (0x47) and the packet length (188 Byte). If theinput TS stream carries content that has only one PID, i.e., for onlyone service component (video, audio, etc.) or service sub-component (SVCbase layer, SVC enhancement layer, MVC base view or MVC dependentviews), TS packet header compression can be applied (optionally) to theTransport Stream. IP packet header compression is used optionally if theinput steam is an IP stream.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks havingsimilar or identical functions.

FIG. 4 illustrates an input formatting block according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

The input formatting block illustrated in FIG. 4 corresponds to anembodiment of the input formatting block 1000 described with referenceto FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates a stream adaptation block of the input formattingmodule when the input signal corresponds to multiple input streams.

Referring to FIG. 4, the mode adaptation block for respectivelyprocessing the multiple input streams can include a scheduler 4000, an1-Frame delay block 4010, a stuffing insertion block 4020, an in-bandsignaling 4030, a BB Frame scrambler 4040, a PLS generation block 4050and a PLS scrambler 4060. Description will be given of each block of thestream adaptation block.

Operations of the stuffing insertion block 4020, the BB Frame scrambler4040, the PLS generation block 4050 and the PLS scrambler 4060correspond to those of the stuffing insertion block, BB scrambler, PLSgeneration block and the PLS scrambler described with reference to FIG.2 and thus description thereof is omitted.

The scheduler 4000 can determine the overall cell allocation across theentire frame from the amount of FECBLOCKs of each DP. Including theallocation for PLS, EAC and FIC, the scheduler generate the values ofPLS2-DYN data, which is transmitted as in-band signaling or PLS cell inFSS of the frame. Details of FECBLOCK, EAC and FIC will be describedlater.

The 1-Frame delay block 4010 can delay the input data by onetransmission frame such that scheduling information about the next framecan be transmitted through the current frame for in-band signalinginformation to be inserted into the DPs.

The in-band signaling 4030 can insert un-delayed part of the PLS2 datainto a DP of a frame.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks havingsimilar or identical functions.

FIG. 5 illustrates a BICM block according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

The BICM block illustrated in FIG. 5 corresponds to an embodiment of theBICM block 1010 described with reference to FIG. 1.

As described above, the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals forfuture broadcast services according to an embodiment of the presentinvention can provide a terrestrial broadcast service, mobile broadcastservice, UHDTV service, etc.

Since QoS (quality of service) depends on characteristics of a serviceprovided by the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for futurebroadcast services according to an embodiment of the present invention,data corresponding to respective services needs to be processed throughdifferent schemes. Accordingly, the a BICM block according to anembodiment of the present invention can independently process DPs inputthereto by independently applying SISO, MISO and MIMO schemes to thedata pipes respectively corresponding to data paths. Consequently, theapparatus for transmitting broadcast signals for future broadcastservices according to an embodiment of the present invention can controlQoS for each service or service component transmitted through each DP.

(a) shows the BICM block shared by the base profile and the handheldprofile and (b) shows the BICM block of the advanced profile.

The BICM block shared by the base profile and the handheld profile andthe BICM block of the advanced profile can include plural processingblocks for processing each DP.

A description will be given of each processing block of the BICM blockfor the base profile and the handheld profile and the BICM block for theadvanced profile.

A processing block 5000 of the BICM block for the base profile and thehandheld profile can include a Data FEC encoder 5010, a bit interleaver5020, a constellation mapper 5030, an SSD (Signal Space Diversity)encoding block 5040 and a time interleaver 5050.

The Data FEC encoder 5010 can perform the FEC encoding on the input BBFto generate FECBLOCK procedure using outer coding (BCH), and innercoding (LDPC). The outer coding (BCH) is optional coding method. Detailsof operations of the Data FEC encoder 5010 will be described later.

The bit interleaver 5020 can interleave outputs of the Data FEC encoder5010 to achieve optimized performance with combination of the LDPC codesand modulation scheme while providing an efficiently implementablestructure. Details of operations of the bit interleaver 5020 will bedescribed later.

The constellation mapper 5030 can modulate each cell word from the bitinterleaver 5020 in the base and the handheld profiles, or cell wordfrom the Cell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 in the advanced profile usingeither QPSK, QAM-16, non-uniform QAM (NUQ-64, NUQ-256, NUQ-1024) ornon-uniform constellation (NUC-16, NUC-64, NUC-256, NUC-1024) to give apower-normalized constellation point, e_(l). This constellation mappingis applied only for DPs. Observe that QAM-16 and NUQs are square shaped,while NUCs have arbitrary shape. When each constellation is rotated byany multiple of 90 degrees, the rotated constellation exactly overlapswith its original one. This “rotation-sense” symmetric property makesthe capacities and the average powers of the real and imaginarycomponents equal to each other. Both NUQs and NUCs are definedspecifically for each code rate and the particular one used is signaledby the parameter DP_MOD filed in PLS2 data.

The SSD encoding block 5040 can precode cells in two (2D), three (3D),and four (4D) dimensions to increase the reception robustness underdifficult fading conditions.

The time interleaver 5050 can operates at the DP level. The parametersof time interleaving (TI) may be set differently for each DP. Details ofoperations of the time interleaver 5050 will be described later.

A processing block 5000-1 of the BICM block for the advanced profile caninclude the Data FEC encoder, bit interleaver, constellation mapper, andtime interleaver. However, the processing block 5000-1 is distinguishedfrom the processing block 5000 further includes a cell-worddemultiplexer 5010-1 and a MIMO encoding block 5020-1.

Also, the operations of the Data FEC encoder, bit interleaver,constellation mapper, and time interleaver in the processing block5000-1 correspond to those of the Data FEC encoder 5010, bit interleaver5020, constellation mapper 5030, and time interleaver 5050 described andthus description thereof is omitted.

The cell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 is used for the DP of the advancedprofile to divide the single cell-word stream into dual cell-wordstreams for MIMO processing. Details of operations of the cell-worddemultiplexer 5010-1 will be described later.

The MIMO encoding block 5020-1 can processing the output of thecell-word demultiplexer 5010-1 using MIMO encoding scheme. The MIMOencoding scheme was optimized for broadcasting signal transmission. TheMIMO technology is a promising way to get a capacity increase but itdepends on channel characteristics. Especially for broadcasting, thestrong LOS component of the channel or a difference in the receivedsignal power between two antennas caused by different signal propagationcharacteristics makes it difficult to get capacity gain from MIMO. Theproposed MIMO encoding scheme overcomes this problem using arotation-based pre-coding and phase randomization of one of the MIMOoutput signals.

MIMO encoding is intended for a 2×2 MIMO system requiring at least twoantennas at both the transmitter and the receiver. Two MIMO encodingmodes are defined in this proposal; full-rate spatial multiplexing(FR-SM) and full-rate full-diversity spatial multiplexing (FRFD-SM). TheFR-SM encoding provides capacity increase with relatively smallcomplexity increase at the receiver side while the FRFD-SM encodingprovides capacity increase and additional diversity gain with a greatcomplexity increase at the receiver side. The proposed MIMO encodingscheme has no restriction on the antenna polarity configuration.

MIMO processing is required for the advanced profile frame, which meansall DPs in the advanced profile frame are processed by the MIMO encoder.MIMO processing is applied at DP level. Pairs of the ConstellationMapper outputs NUQ (e_(1,i) and e_(2,i)) are fed to the input of theMIMO Encoder. Paired MIMO Encoder output (g1,i and g2,i) is transmittedby the same carrier k and OFDM symbol 1 of their respective TX antennas.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks havingsimilar or identical functions.

FIG. 6 illustrates a BICM block according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

The BICM block illustrated in FIG. 6 corresponds to an embodiment of theBICM block 1010 described with reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 illustrates a BICM block for protection of physical layersignaling (PLS), emergency alert channel (EAC) and fast informationchannel (FIC). EAC is a part of a frame that carries EAS informationdata and FIC is a logical channel in a frame that carries the mappinginformation between a service and the corresponding base DP. Details ofthe EAC and FIC will be described later.

Referring to FIG. 6, the BICM block for protection of PLS, EAC and FICcan include a PLS FEC encoder 6000, a bit interleaver 6010, aconstellation mapper 6020 and time interleaver 6030.

Also, the PLS FEC encoder 6000 can include a scrambler, BCHencoding/zero insertion block, LDPC encoding block and LDPC paritypunturing block. Description will be given of each block of the BICMblock.

The PLS FEC encoder 6000 can encode the scrambled PLS 1/2 data, EAC andFIC section.

The scrambler can scramble PLS1 data and PLS2 data before BCH encodingand shortened and punctured LDPC encoding.

The BCH encoding/zero insertion block can perform outer encoding on thescrambled PLS 1/2 data using the shortened BCH code for PLS protectionand insert zero bits after the BCH encoding. For PLS1 data only, theoutput bits of the zero insertion may be permutted before LDPC encoding.

The LDPC encoding block can encode the output of the BCH encoding/zeroinsertion block using LDPC code. To generate a complete coded block,C_(ldpc), parity bits, P_(ldpc) are encoded systematically from eachzero-inserted PLS information block, I_(ldpc) and appended after it.C _(ldpc) =[I _(ldpc) P _(ldpc) ]=[i ₀ ,i ₁ , . . . ,i _(K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹,p ₀ ,p ₁ , . . . ,p _(N) _(ldpc) _(−K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹]  [Expression 1]

The LDPC code parameters for PLS1 and PLS2 are as following table 4.

TABLE 4 Signaling Type K_(sig) K_(bch) N_(bch)_parity K_(ldpc)(=N_(bch)) N_(ldpc) N_(ldpc)_parity code rate Q_(ldpc) PLS1 342 1020 601080 4320 3240 1/4  36 PLS2 <1021 >1020 2100 2160 7200 5040 3/10 56

The LDPC parity punturing block can perform puncturing on the PLS1 dataand PLS 2 data.

When shortening is applied to the PLS1 data protection, some LDPC paritybits are punctured after LDPC encoding. Also, for the PLS2 dataprotection, the LDPC parity bits of PLS2 are punctured after LDPCencoding. These punctured bits are not transmitted.

The bit interleaver 6010 can interleave the each shortened and puncturedPLS1 data and PLS2 data.

The constellation mapper 6020 can map the bit interleaved PLS1 data andPLS2 data onto constellations.

The time interleaver 6030 can interleave the mapped PLS1 data and PLS2data.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks havingsimilar or identical functions.

FIG. 7 illustrates a frame building block according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

The frame building block illustrated in FIG. 7 corresponds to anembodiment of the frame building block 1020 described with reference toFIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 7, the frame building block can include a delaycompensation block 7000, a cell mapper 7010 and a frequency interleaver7020. Description will be given of each block of the frame buildingblock.

The delay compensation block 7000 can adjust the timing between the datapipes and the corresponding PLS data to ensure that they are co-timed atthe transmitter end. The PLS data is delayed by the same amount as datapipes are by addressing the delays of data pipes caused by the InputFormatting block and BICM block. The delay of the BICM block is mainlydue to the time interleaver. In-band signaling data carries informationof the next TI group so that they are carried one frame ahead of the DPsto be signaled. The Delay Compensating block delays in-band signalingdata accordingly.

The cell mapper 7010 can map PLS, EAC, FIC, DPs, auxiliary streams anddummy cells into the active carriers of the OFDM symbols in the frame.The basic function of the cell mapper 7010 is to map data cells producedby the TIs for each of the DPs, PLS cells, and EAC/FIC cells, if any,into arrays of active OFDM cells corresponding to each of the OFDMsymbols within a frame. Service signaling data (such as PSI (programspecific information)/SI) can be separately gathered and sent by a datapipe. The Cell Mapper operates according to the dynamic informationproduced by the scheduler and the configuration of the frame structure.Details of the frame will be described later.

The frequency interleaver 7020 can randomly interleave data cellsreceived from the cell mapper 7010 to provide frequency diversity. Also,the frequency interleaver 7020 can operate on very OFDM symbol paircomprised of two sequential OFDM symbols using a differentinterleaving-seed order to get maximum interleaving gain in a singleframe. Details of operations of the frequency interleaver 7020 will bedescribed later.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks havingsimilar or identical functions.

FIG. 8 illustrates an OFMD generation block according to an embodimentof the present invention.

The OFMD generation block illustrated in FIG. 8 corresponds to anembodiment of the OFMD generation block 1030 described with reference toFIG. 1.

The OFDM generation block modulates the OFDM carriers by the cellsproduced by the Frame Building block, inserts the pilots, and producesthe time domain signal for transmission. Also, this block subsequentlyinserts guard intervals, and applies PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Radio)reduction processing to produce the final RF signal.

Referring to FIG. 8, the frame building block can include a pilot andreserved tone insertion block 8000, a 2D-eSFN encoding block 8010, anIFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform) block 8020, a PAPR reduction block8030, a guard interval insertion block 8040, a preamble insertion block8050, other system insertion block 8060 and a DAC block 8070.Description will be given of each block of the frame building block.

The pilot and reserved tone insertion block 8000 can insert pilots andthe reserved tone.

Various cells within the OFDM symbol are modulated with referenceinformation, known as pilots, which have transmitted values known apriori in the receiver. The information of pilot cells is made up ofscattered pilots, continual pilots, edge pilots, FSS (frame signalingsymbol) pilots and FES (frame edge symbol) pilots. Each pilot istransmitted at a particular boosted power level according to pilot typeand pilot pattern. The value of the pilot information is derived from areference sequence, which is a series of values, one for eachtransmitted carrier on any given symbol. The pilots can be used forframe synchronization, frequency synchronization, time synchronization,channel estimation, and transmission mode identification, and also canbe used to follow the phase noise.

Reference information, taken from the reference sequence, is transmittedin scattered pilot cells in every symbol except the preamble, FSS andFES of the frame. Continual pilots are inserted in every symbol of theframe. The number and location of continual pilots depends on both theFFT size and the scattered pilot pattern. The edge carriers are edgepilots in every symbol except for the preamble symbol. They are insertedin order to allow frequency interpolation up to the edge of thespectrum. FSS pilots are inserted in FSS(s) and FES pilots are insertedin FES. They are inserted in order to allow time interpolation up to theedge of the frame.

The system according to an embodiment of the present invention supportsthe SFN network, where distributed MISO scheme is optionally used tosupport very robust transmission mode. The 2D-eSFN is a distributed MISOscheme that uses multiple TX antennas, each of which is located in thedifferent transmitter site in the SFN network.

The 2D-eSFN encoding block 8010 can process a 2D-eSFN processing todistorts the phase of the signals transmitted from multipletransmitters, in order to create both time and frequency diversity inthe SFN configuration. Hence, burst errors due to low flat fading ordeep-fading for a long time can be mitigated.

The IFFT block 8020 can modulate the output from the 2D-eSFN encodingblock 8010 using OFDM modulation scheme. Any cell in the data symbolswhich has not been designated as a pilot (or as a reserved tone) carriesone of the data cells from the frequency interleaver. The cells aremapped to OFDM carriers.

The PAPR reduction block 8030 can perform a PAPR reduction on inputsignal using various PAPR reduction algorithm in the time domain.

The guard interval insertion block 8040 can insert guard intervals andthe preamble insertion block 8050 can insert preamble in front of thesignal. Details of a structure of the preamble will be described later.The other system insertion block 8060 can multiplex signals of aplurality of broadcast transmission/reception systems in the time domainsuch that data of two or more different broadcast transmission/receptionsystems providing broadcast services can be simultaneously transmittedin the same RF signal bandwidth. In this case, the two or more differentbroadcast transmission/reception systems refer to systems providingdifferent broadcast services. The different broadcast services may referto a terrestrial broadcast service, mobile broadcast service, etc. Datarelated to respective broadcast services can be transmitted throughdifferent frames.

The DAC block 8070 can convert an input digital signal into an analogsignal and output the analog signal. The signal output from the DACblock 7800 can be transmitted through multiple output antennas accordingto the physical layer profiles. A Tx antenna according to an embodimentof the present invention can have vertical or horizontal polarity.

The above-described blocks may be omitted or replaced by blocks havingsimilar or identical functions according to design.

FIG. 9 illustrates a structure of an apparatus for receiving broadcastsignals for future broadcast services according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

The apparatus for receiving broadcast signals for future broadcastservices according to an embodiment of the present invention cancorrespond to the apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals forfuture broadcast services, described with reference to FIG. 1.

The apparatus for receiving broadcast signals for future broadcastservices according to an embodiment of the present invention can includea synchronization & demodulation module 9000, a frame parsing module9010, a demapping & decoding module 9020, an output processor 9030 and asignaling decoding module 9040. A description will be given of operationof each module of the apparatus for receiving broadcast signals.

The synchronization & demodulation module 9000 can receive input signalsthrough m Rx antennas, perform signal detection and synchronization withrespect to a system corresponding to the apparatus for receivingbroadcast signals and carry out demodulation corresponding to a reverseprocedure of the procedure performed by the apparatus for transmittingbroadcast signals.

The frame parsing module 9100 can parse input signal frames and extractdata through which a service selected by a user is transmitted. If theapparatus for transmitting broadcast signals performs interleaving, theframe parsing module 9100 can carry out deinterleaving corresponding toa reverse procedure of interleaving. In this case, the positions of asignal and data that need to be extracted can be obtained by decodingdata output from the signaling decoding module 9400 to restorescheduling information generated by the apparatus for transmittingbroadcast signals.

The demapping & decoding module 9200 can convert the input signals intobit domain data and then deinterleave the same as necessary. Thedemapping & decoding module 9200 can perform demapping for mappingapplied for transmission efficiency and correct an error generated on atransmission channel through decoding. In this case, the demapping &decoding module 9200 can obtain transmission parameters necessary fordemapping and decoding by decoding the data output from the signalingdecoding module 9400.

The output processor 9300 can perform reverse procedures of variouscompression/signal processing procedures which are applied by theapparatus for transmitting broadcast signals to improve transmissionefficiency. In this case, the output processor 9300 can acquirenecessary control information from data output from the signalingdecoding module 9400. The output of the output processor 8300corresponds to a signal input to the apparatus for transmittingbroadcast signals and may be MPEG-TSs, IP streams (v4 or v6) and genericstreams.

The signaling decoding module 9400 can obtain PLS information from thesignal demodulated by the synchronization & demodulation module 9000. Asdescribed above, the frame parsing module 9100, demapping & decodingmodule 9200 and output processor 9300 can execute functions thereofusing the data output from the signaling decoding module 9400.

FIG. 10 illustrates a frame structure according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 10 shows an example configuration of the frame types and FRUs in asuper-frame. (a) shows a super frame according to an embodiment of thepresent invention, (b) shows FRU (Frame Repetition Unit) according to anembodiment of the present invention, (c) shows frames of variable PHYprofiles in the FRU and (d) shows a structure of a frame.

A super-frame may be composed of eight FRUs. The FRU is a basicmultiplexing unit for TDM of the frames, and is repeated eight times ina super-frame.

Each frame in the FRU belongs to one of the PHY profiles, (base,handheld, advanced) or FEF. The maximum allowed number of the frames inthe FRU is four and a given PHY profile can appear any number of timesfrom zero times to four times in the FRU (e.g., base, base, handheld,advanced). PHY profile definitions can be extended using reserved valuesof the PHY_PROFILE in the preamble, if required.

The FEF part is inserted at the end of the FRU, if included. When theFEF is included in the FRU, the minimum number of FEFs is 8 in asuper-frame. It is not recommended that FEF parts be adjacent to eachother.

One frame is further divided into a number of OFDM symbols and apreamble. As shown in (d), the frame comprises a preamble, one or moreframe signaling symbols (FSS), normal data symbols and a frame edgesymbol (FES).

The preamble is a special symbol that enables fast Futurecast UTB systemsignal detection and provides a set of basic transmission parameters forefficient transmission and reception of the signal. The detaileddescription of the preamble will be will be described later.

The main purpose of the FSS(s) is to carry the PLS data. For fastsynchronization and channel estimation, and hence fast decoding of PLSdata, the FSS has more dense pilot pattern than the normal data symbol.The FES has exactly the same pilots as the FSS, which enablesfrequency-only interpolation within the FES and temporal interpolation,without extrapolation, for symbols immediately preceding the FES.

FIG. 11 illustrates a signaling hierarchy structure of the frameaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates the signaling hierarchy structure, which is splitinto three main parts: the preamble signaling data 11000, the PLS1 data11010 and the PLS2 data 11020. The purpose of the preamble, which iscarried by the preamble symbol in every frame, is to indicate thetransmission type and basic transmission parameters of that frame. ThePLS1 enables the receiver to access and decode the PLS2 data, whichcontains the parameters to access the DP of interest. The PLS2 iscarried in every frame and split into two main parts: PLS2-STAT data andPLS2-DYN data. The static and dynamic portion of PLS2 data is followedby padding, if necessary.

FIG. 12 illustrates preamble signaling data according to an embodimentof the present invention.

Preamble signaling data carries 21 bits of information that are neededto enable the receiver to access PLS data and trace DPs within the framestructure. Details of the preamble signaling data are as follows:

PHY_PROFILE: This 3-bit field indicates the PHY profile type of thecurrent frame. The mapping of different PHY profile types is given inbelow table 5.

TABLE 5 Value PHY profile 000 Base profile 001 Handheld profile 010Advanced profiled 011~110 Reserved 111 FEF

FFT_SIZE: This 2 bit field indicates the FFT size of the current framewithin a frame-group, as described in below table 6.

TABLE 6 Value FFT size 00  8K FFT 01 16K FFT 10 32K FFT 11 Reserved

GI_FRACTION: This 3 bit field indicates the guard interval fractionvalue in the current super-frame, as described in below table 7.

TABLE 7 Value GI_FRACTION 000 ⅕ 001 1/10 010 1/20 011 1/40 100 1/80 1011/160 110~111 Reserved

EAC_FLAG: This 1 bit field indicates whether the EAC is provided in thecurrent frame. If this field is set to ‘1’, emergency alert service(EAS) is provided in the current frame. If this field set to ‘0’, EAS isnot carried in the current frame. This field can be switched dynamicallywithin a super-frame.

PILOT_MODE: This 1-bit field indicates whether the pilot mode is mobilemode or fixed mode for the current frame in the current frame-group. Ifthis field is set to ‘0’, mobile pilot mode is used. If the field is setto ‘1’, the fixed pilot mode is used.

PAPR_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether PAPR reduction is used forthe current frame in the current frame-group. If this field is set tovalue ‘1’, tone reservation is used for PAPR reduction. If this field isset to ‘0’, PAPR reduction is not used.

FRU_CONFIGURE: This 3-bit field indicates the PHY profile typeconfigurations of the frame repetition units (FRU) that are present inthe current super-frame. All profile types conveyed in the currentsuper-frame are identified in this field in all preambles in the currentsuper-frame. The 3-bit field has a different definition for eachprofile, as show in below table 8.

TABLE 8 Current Current Current Current PHY_PROFILE = PHY_PROFILE =PHY_PROFILE = PHY_PROFILE = ‘000’ ‘001’ ‘010’ ‘111’ (base) (handheld)(advanced) (FEF) FRU_CONFIGURE = Only base Only handheld Only advancedOnly FEF 000 profile profile present profile present present presentFRU_CONFIGURE = Handheld profile Base profile Base profile Base profile1XX present present present present FRU_CONFIGURE = Advanced AdvancedHandheld profile Handheld profile X1X profile profile present presentpresent present FRU_CONFIGURE = FEF FEF FEF Advanced XX1 present presentpresent profile present

RESERVED: This 7-bit field is reserved for future use.

FIG. 13 illustrates PLS1 data according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

PLS1 data provides basic transmission parameters including parametersrequired to enable the reception and decoding of the PLS2. As abovementioned, the PLS1 data remain unchanged for the entire duration of oneframe-group. The detailed definition of the signaling fields of the PLS1data are as follows:

PREAMBLE_DATA: This 20-bit field is a copy of the preamble signalingdata excluding the EAC_FLAG.

NUM_FRAME_FRU: This 2-bit field indicates the number of the frames perFRU.

PAYLOAD_TYPE: This 3-bit field indicates the format of the payload datacarried in the frame-group. PAYLOAD_TYPE is signaled as shown in table9.

TABLE 9 value Payload type 1XX TS stream is transmitted X1X IP stream istransmitted XX1 GS stream is transmitted

NUM_FSS: This 2-bit field indicates the number of FSS symbols in thecurrent frame.

SYSTEM_VERSION: This 8-bit field indicates the version of thetransmitted signal format. The SYSTEM_VERSION is divided into two 4-bitfields, which are a major version and a minor version.

Major version: The MSB four bits of SYSTEM_VERSION field indicate majorversion information. A change in the major version field indicates anon-backward-compatible change. The default value is ‘0000’. For theversion described in this standard, the value is set to ‘0000’.

Minor version: The LSB four bits of SYSTEM_VERSION field indicate minorversion information. A change in the minor version field isbackward-compatible.

CELL_ID: This is a 16-bit field which uniquely identifies a geographiccell in an ATSC network. An ATSC cell coverage area may consist of oneor more frequencies, depending on the number of frequencies used perFuturecast UTB system. If the value of the CELL_ID is not known orunspecified, this field is set to ‘0’.

NETWORK_ID: This is a 16-bit field which uniquely identifies the currentATSC network.

SYSTEM_ID: This 16-bit field uniquely identifies the Futurecast UTBsystem within the ATSC network. The Futurecast UTB system is theterrestrial broadcast system whose input is one or more input streams(TS, IP, GS) and whose output is an RF signal. The Futurecast UTB systemcarries one or more PHY profiles and FEF, if any. The same FuturecastUTB system may carry different input streams and use different RFfrequencies in different geographical areas, allowing local serviceinsertion. The frame structure and scheduling is controlled in one placeand is identical for all transmissions within a Futurecast UTB system.One or more Futurecast UTB systems may have the same SYSTEM_ID meaningthat they all have the same physical layer structure and configuration.

The following loop consists of FRU_PHY_PROFILE, FRU_FRAME_LENGTH,FRU_GI_FRACTION, and RESERVED which are used to indicate the FRUconfiguration and the length of each frame type. The loop size is fixedso that four PHY profiles (including a FEF) are signaled within the FRU.If NUM_FRAME_FRU is less than 4, the unused fields are filled withzeros.

FRU_PHY_PROFILE: This 3-bit field indicates the PHY profile type of the(i+1)^(th) (i is the loop index) frame of the associated FRU. This fielduses the same signaling format as shown in the table 8.

FRU_FRAME_LENGTH: This 2-bit field indicates the length of the(i+1)^(th) frame of the associated FRU. Using FRU_FRAME_LENGTH togetherwith FRU_GI_FRACTION, the exact value of the frame duration can beobtained.

FRU_GI_FRACTION: This 3-bit field indicates the guard interval fractionvalue of the (i+1)^(th) frame of the associated FRU. FRU_GI_FRACTION issignaled according to the table 7.

RESERVED: This 4-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following fields provide parameters for decoding the PLS2 data.

PLS2_FEC_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the FEC type used by the PLS2protection. The FEC type is signaled according to table 10. The detailsof the LDPC codes will be described later.

TABLE 10 Content PLS2 FEC type 00 4K-1/4 and 7K-3/10 LDPC codes 01~11Reserved

PLS2_MOD: This 3-bit field indicates the modulation type used by thePLS2. The modulation type is signaled according to table 11.

TABLE 11 Value PLS2_MODE 000 BPSK 001 QPSK 010 QAM-16 011 NUQ-64 100~111Reserved

PLS2_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates C_(total) _(_) _(partial)_(_) _(block), the size (specified as the number of QAM cells) of thecollection of full coded blocks for PLS2 that is carried in the currentframe-group. This value is constant during the entire duration of thecurrent frame-group.

PLS2_STAT_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, in bits, ofthe PLS2-STAT for the current frame-group. This value is constant duringthe entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_DYN_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, in bits, of thePLS2-DYN for the current frame-group. This value is constant during theentire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_REP_FLAG: This 1-bit flag indicates whether the PLS2 repetitionmode is used in the current frame-group. When this field is set to value‘1’, the PLS2 repetition mode is activated. When this field is set tovalue ‘0’, the PLS2 repetition mode is deactivated.

PLS2_REP_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates C_(total) _(_)_(partial) _(_) _(block), the size (specified as the number of QAMcells) of the collection of partial coded blocks for PLS2 carried inevery frame of the current frame-group, when PLS2 repetition is used. Ifrepetition is not used, the value of this field is equal to 0. Thisvalue is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_FEC_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the FEC type used forPLS2 that is carried in every frame of the next frame-group. The FECtype is signaled according to the table 10.

PLS2_NEXT_MOD: This 3-bit field indicates the modulation type used forPLS2 that is carried in every frame of the next frame-group. Themodulation type is signaled according to the table 11.

PLS2_NEXT_REP_FLAG: This 1-bit flag indicates whether the PLS2repetition mode is used in the next frame-group. When this field is setto value ‘1’, the PLS2 repetition mode is activated. When this field isset to value ‘0’, the PLS2 repetition mode is deactivated.

PLS2_NEXT_REP_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates C_(total) _(_)_(full) _(_) _(block), The size (specified as the number of QAM cells)of the collection of full coded blocks for PLS2 that is carried in everyframe of the next frame-group, when PLS2 repetition is used. Ifrepetition is not used in the next frame-group, the value of this fieldis equal to 0. This value is constant during the entire duration of thecurrent frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_REP_STAT_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, inbits, of the PLS2-STAT for the next frame-group. This value is constantin the current frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_REP_DYN_SIZE_BIT: This 14-bit field indicates the size, inbits, of the PLS2-DYN for the next frame-group. This value is constantin the current frame-group.

PLS2_AP_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether additional parity isprovided for PLS2 in the current frame-group. This value is constantduring the entire duration of the current frame-group. The below table12 gives the values of this field. When this field is set to ‘00’,additional parity is not used for the PLS2 in the current frame-group.

TABLE 12 Value PLS2-AP mode 00 AP is not provided 01 AP1 mode 10~11Reserved

PLS2_AP_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates the size (specified asthe number of QAM cells) of the additional parity bits of the PLS2. Thisvalue is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.

PLS2_NEXT_AP_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether additional parityis provided for PLS2 signaling in every frame of next frame-group. Thisvalue is constant during the entire duration of the current frame-group.The table 12 defines the values of this field

PLS2_NEXT_AP_SIZE_CELL: This 15-bit field indicates the size (specifiedas the number of QAM cells) of the additional parity bits of the PLS2 inevery frame of the next frame-group. This value is constant during theentire duration of the current frame-group.

RESERVED: This 32-bit field is reserved for future use.

CRC_32: A 32-bit error detection code, which is applied to the entirePLS1 signaling.

FIG. 14 illustrates PLS2 data according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 14 illustrates PLS2-STAT data of the PLS2 data. The PLS2-STAT dataare the same within a frame-group, while the PLS2-DYN data provideinformation that is specific for the current frame.

The details of fields of the PLS2-STAT data are as follows:

FIC_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether the FIC is used in thecurrent frame-group. If this field is set to ‘1’, the FIC is provided inthe current frame. If this field set to ‘0’, the FIC is not carried inthe current frame. This value is constant during the entire duration ofthe current frame-group.

AUX_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether the auxiliary stream(s) isused in the current frame-group. If this field is set to ‘1’, theauxiliary stream is provided in the current frame. If this field set to‘0’, the auxiliary stream is not carried in the current frame. Thisvalue is constant during the entire duration of current frame-group.

NUM_DP: This 6-bit field indicates the number of DPs carried within thecurrent frame. The value of this field ranges from 1 to 64, and thenumber of DPs is NUM_DP+1.

DP_ID: This 6-bit field identifies uniquely a DP within a PHY profile.

DP_TYPE: This 3-bit field indicates the type of the DP. This is signaledaccording to the below table 13.

TABLE 13 Value DP Type 000 DP Type 1 001 DP Type 2 010~111 reserved

DP_GROUP_ID: This 8-bit field identifies the DP group with which thecurrent DP is associated. This can be used by a receiver to access theDPs of the service components associated with a particular service,which will have the same DP_GROUP_ID.

BASE_DP_ID: This 6-bit field indicates the DP carrying service signalingdata (such as PSI/SI) used in the Management layer. The DP indicated byBASE_DP_ID may be either a normal DP carrying the service signaling dataalong with the service data or a dedicated DP carrying only the servicesignaling data

DP_FEC_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the FEC type used by theassociated DP. The FEC type is signaled according to the below table 14.

TABLE 14 Value FEC_TYPE 00 16K LDPC 01 64K LDPC 10~11 Reserved

DP_COD: This 4-bit field indicates the code rate used by the associatedDP. The code rate is signaled according to the below table 15.

TABLE 15 Value Code rate 0000  5/15 0001  6/15 0010  7/15 0011  8/150100  9/15 0101 10/15 0110 11/15 0111 12/15 1000 13/15 1001~1111Reserved

DP_MOD: This 4-bit field indicates the modulation used by the associatedDP. The modulation is signaled according to the below table 16.

TABLE 16 Value Modulation 0000 QPSK 0001 QAM-16 0010 NUQ-64 0011 NUQ-2560100 NUQ-1024 0101 NUC-16 0110 NUC-64 0111 NUC-256 1000 NUC-10241001~1111 reserved

DP_SSD_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates whether the SSD mode is used inthe associated DP. If this field is set to value ‘1’, SSD is used. Ifthis field is set to value ‘0’, SSD is not used.

The following field appears only if PHY_PROFILE is equal to ‘010’, whichindicates the advanced profile:

DP_MIMO: This 3-bit field indicates which type of MIMO encoding processis applied to the associated DP. The type of MIMO encoding process issignaled according to the table 17.

TABLE 17 Value MIMO encoding 000 FR-SM 001 FRFD-SM 010~111 reserved

DP_TI_TYPE: This 1-bit field indicates the type of time-interleaving. Avalue of ‘0’ indicates that one TI group corresponds to one frame andcontains one or more TI-blocks. A value of ‘1’ indicates that one TIgroup is carried in more than one frame and contains only one TI-block.

DP_TI_LENGTH: The use of this 2-bit field (the allowed values are only1, 2, 4, 8) is determined by the values set within the DP_TI_TYPE fieldas follows:

If the DP_TI_TYPE is set to the value ‘1’, this field indicates P_(I),the number of the frames to which each TI group is mapped, and there isone TI-block per TI group (N_(H)=1). The allowed P_(I) values with 2-bitfield are defined in the below table 18.

If the DP_TI_TYPE is set to the value ‘0’, this field indicates thenumber of TI-blocks N_(TI) per TI group, and there is one TI group perframe (P_(I)=1). The allowed P_(I) values with 2-bit field are definedin the below table 18.

TABLE 18 2-bit field P_(I) N_(TI) 00 1 1 01 2 2 10 4 3 11 8 4

DP_FRAME_INTERVAL: This 2-bit field indicates the frame interval(I_(JUMP)) within the frame-group for the associated DP and the allowedvalues are 1, 2, 4, 8 (the corresponding 2-bit field is ‘00’, ‘01’,‘10’, or ‘11’, respectively). For DPs that do not appear every frame ofthe frame-group, the value of this field is equal to the intervalbetween successive frames. For example, if a DP appears on the frames 1,5, 9, 13, etc., this field is set to ‘4’. For DPs that appear in everyframe, this field is set to ‘1’.

DP_TI_BYPASS: This 1-bit field determines the availability of timeinterleaver. If time interleaving is not used for a DP, it is set to‘1’. Whereas if time interleaving is used it is set to ‘0’.

DP_FIRST_FRAME_IDX: This 5-bit field indicates the index of the firstframe of the super-frame in which the current DP occurs. The value ofDP_FIRST_FRAME_IDX ranges from 0 to 31

DP_NUM_BLOCK_MAX: This 10-bit field indicates the maximum value ofDP_NUM_BLOCKS for this DP. The value of this field has the same range asDP_NUM_BLOCKS.

DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the type of the payload datacarried by the given DP. DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is signaled according to thebelow table 19.

TABLE 19 Value Payload Type 00 TS. 01 IP 10 GS 11 reserved

DP_INBAND_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether the current DPcarries in-band signaling information. The in-band signaling type issignaled according to the below table 20.

TABLE 20 Value In-band mode 00 In-band signaling is not carried. 01INBAND-PLS is carried only 10 INBAND-ISSY is carried only 11 INBAND-PLSand INBAND-ISSY are carried

DP_PROTOCOL_TYPE: This 2-bit field indicates the protocol type of thepayload carried by the given DP. It is signaled according to the belowtable 21 when input payload types are selected.

TABLE 21 If DP_PAY- If DP_PAY- If DP_PAY- LOAD_TYPE LOAD_TYPE LOAD_TYPEValue Is TS Is IP Is GS 00 MPEG2-TS IPv4 (Note) 01 Reserved IPv6Reserved 10 Reserved Reserved Reserved 11 Reserved Reserved Reserved

DP_CRC_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates whether CRC encoding is used inthe Input Formatting block. The CRC mode is signaled according to thebelow table 22.

TABLE 22 Value CRC mode 00 Not used 01 CRC-8 10 CRC-16 11 CRC-32

DNP_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates the null-packet deletion mode usedby the associated DP when DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to TS (‘00’). DNP_MODEis signaled according to the below table 23. If DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is notTS (‘00’), DNP_MODE is set to the value ‘00’.

TABLE 23 Value Null-packet deletion mode 00 Not used 01 DNP-NORMAL 10DNP-OFFSET 11 reserved

ISSY_MODE: This 2-bit field indicates the ISSY mode used by theassociated DP when DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to TS (‘00’). The ISSY_MODE issignaled according to the below table 24 If DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is not TS(‘00’), ISSY_MODE is set to the value ‘00’.

TABLE 24 Value ISSY mode 00 Not used 01 ISSY-UP 10 ISSY-BBF 11 reserved

HC_MODE_TS: This 2-bit field indicates the TS header compression modeused by the associated DP when DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to TS (‘00’). TheHC_MODE_TS is signaled according to the below table 25.

TABLE 25 Value Header compression mode 00 HC_MODE_TS 1 01 HC_MODE_TS 210 HC_MODE_TS 3 11 HC_MODE_TS 4

HC_MODE_IP: This 2-bit field indicates the IP header compression modewhen DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to IP (‘01’). The HC_MODE_IP is signaledaccording to the below table 26.

TABLE 26 Value Header compression mode 00 No compression 01 HC_MODE_IP 110~11 reserved

PID: This 13-bit field indicates the PID number for TS headercompression when DP_PAYLOAD_TYPE is set to TS (‘00’) and HC_MODE_TS isset to ‘01’ or ‘10’.

RESERVED: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following field appears only if FIC_FLAG is equal to ‘1’:

FIC_VERSION: This 8-bit field indicates the version number of the FIC.

FIC_LENGTH_BYTE: This 13-bit field indicates the length, in bytes, ofthe FIC.

RESERVED: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following field appears only if AUX_FLAG is equal to ‘1’:

NUM_AUX: This 4-bit field indicates the number of auxiliary streams.Zero means no auxiliary streams are used.

AUX_CONFIG_RFU: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

AUX_STREAM_TYPE: This 4-bit is reserved for future use for indicatingthe type of the current auxiliary stream.

AUX_PRIVATE_CONFIG: This 28-bit field is reserved for future use forsignaling auxiliary streams.

FIG. 15 illustrates PLS2 data according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 15 illustrates PLS2-DYN data of the PLS2 data. The values of thePLS2-DYN data may change during the duration of one frame-group, whilethe size of fields remains constant.

The details of fields of the PLS2-DYN data are as follows:

FRAME_INDEX: This 5-bit field indicates the frame index of the currentframe within the super-frame. The index of the first frame of thesuper-frame is set to ‘0’.

PLS_CHANGE_COUNTER: This 4-bit field indicates the number ofsuper-frames ahead where the configuration will change. The nextsuper-frame with changes in the configuration is indicated by the valuesignaled within this field. If this field is set to the value ‘0000’, itmeans that no scheduled change is foreseen: e.g., value ‘1’ indicatesthat there is a change in the next super-frame.

FIC_CHANGE_COUNTER: This 4-bit field indicates the number ofsuper-frames ahead where the configuration (i.e., the contents of theFIC) will change. The next super-frame with changes in the configurationis indicated by the value signaled within this field. If this field isset to the value ‘0000’, it means that no scheduled change is foreseen:e.g. value ‘0001’ indicates that there is a change in the nextsuper-frame.

RESERVED: This 16-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following fields appear in the loop over NUM_DP, which describe theparameters associated with the DP carried in the current frame.

DP_ID: This 6-bit field indicates uniquely the DP within a PHY profile.

DP_START: This 15-bit (or 13-bit) field indicates the start position ofthe first of the DPs using the DPU addressing scheme. The DP_START fieldhas differing length according to the PHY profile and FFT size as shownin the below table 27.

TABLE 27 DP_START field size PHY profile 64K 16K Base 13 bit 15 bitHandheld — 13 bit Advanced 13 bit 15 bit

DP_NUM_BLOCK: This 10-bit field indicates the number of FEC blocks inthe current TI group for the current DP. The value of DP_NUM_BLOCKranges from 0 to 1023

RESERVED: This 8-bit field is reserved for future use.

The following fields indicate the FIC parameters associated with theEAC.

EAC_FLAG: This 1-bit field indicates the existence of the EAC in thecurrent frame. This bit is the same value as the EAC_FLAG in thepreamble.

EAS_WAKE_UP_VERSION_NUM: This 8-bit field indicates the version numberof a wake-up indication.

If the EAC_FLAG field is equal to ‘1’, the following 12 bits areallocated for EAC_LENGTH_BYTE field. If the EAC_FLAG field is equal to‘0’, the following 12 bits are allocated for EAC_COUNTER.

EAC_LENGTH_BYTE: This 12-bit field indicates the length, in byte, of theEAC.

EAC_COUNTER: This 12-bit field indicates the number of the frames beforethe frame where the EAC arrives.

The following field appears only if the AUX_FLAG field is equal to ‘1’:

AUX_PRIVATE_DYN: This 48-bit field is reserved for future use forsignaling auxiliary streams. The meaning of this field depends on thevalue of AUX_STREAM_TYPE in the configurable PLS2-STAT.

CRC_32: A 32-bit error detection code, which is applied to the entirePLS2.

FIG. 16 illustrates a logical structure of a frame according to anembodiment of the present invention.

As above mentioned, the PLS, EAC, FIC, DPs, auxiliary streams and dummycells are mapped into the active carriers of the OFDM symbols in theframe. The PLS1 and PLS2 are first mapped into one or more FSS(s). Afterthat, EAC cells, if any, are mapped immediately following the PLS field,followed next by FIC cells, if any. The DPs are mapped next after thePLS or EAC, FIC, if any. Type 1 DPs follows first, and Type 2 DPs next.The details of a type of the DP will be described later. In some case,DPs may carry some special data for EAS or service signaling data. Theauxiliary stream or streams, if any, follow the DPs, which in turn arefollowed by dummy cells. Mapping them all together in the abovementioned order, i.e. PLS, EAC, FIC, DPs, auxiliary streams and dummydata cells exactly fill the cell capacity in the frame.

FIG. 17 illustrates PLS mapping according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

PLS cells are mapped to the active carriers of FSS(s). Depending on thenumber of cells occupied by PLS, one or more symbols are designated asFSS(s), and the number of FSS(s) N_(FSS) is signaled by NUM_FSS in PLS1.The FSS is a special symbol for carrying PLS cells. Since robustness andlatency are critical issues in the PLS, the FSS(s) has higher density ofpilots allowing fast synchronization and frequency-only interpolationwithin the FSS.

PLS cells are mapped to active carriers of the N_(FSS) FSS(s) in atop-down manner as shown in an example in FIG. 17. The PLS1 cells aremapped first from the first cell of the first FSS in an increasing orderof the cell index. The PLS2 cells follow immediately after the last cellof the PLS1 and mapping continues downward until the last cell index ofthe first FSS. If the total number of required PLS cells exceeds thenumber of active carriers of one FSS, mapping proceeds to the next FSSand continues in exactly the same manner as the first FSS.

After PLS mapping is completed, DPs are carried next. If EAC, FIC orboth are present in the current frame, they are placed between PLS and“normal” DPs.

FIG. 18 illustrates EAC mapping according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

EAC is a dedicated channel for carrying EAS messages and links to theDPs for EAS. EAS support is provided but EAC itself may or may not bepresent in every frame. EAC, if any, is mapped immediately after thePLS2 cells. EAC is not preceded by any of the FIC, DPs, auxiliarystreams or dummy cells other than the PLS cells. The procedure ofmapping the EAC cells is exactly the same as that of the PLS.

The EAC cells are mapped from the next cell of the PLS2 in increasingorder of the cell index as shown in the example in FIG. 18. Depending onthe EAS message size, EAC cells may occupy a few symbols, as shown inFIG. 18.

EAC cells follow immediately after the last cell of the PLS2, andmapping continues downward until the last cell index of the last FSS. Ifthe total number of required EAC cells exceeds the number of remainingactive carriers of the last FSS mapping proceeds to the next symbol andcontinues in exactly the same manner as FSS(s). The next symbol formapping in this case is the normal data symbol, which has more activecarriers than a FSS.

After EAC mapping is completed, the FIC is carried next, if any exists.If FIC is not transmitted (as signaled in the PLS2 field), DPs followimmediately after the last cell of the EAC.

FIG. 19 illustrates FIC mapping according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

(a) shows an example mapping of FIC cell without EAC and (b) shows anexample mapping of FIC cell with EAC.

FIC is a dedicated channel for carrying cross-layer information toenable fast service acquisition and channel scanning. This informationprimarily includes channel binding information between DPs and theservices of each broadcaster. For fast scan, a receiver can decode FICand obtain information such as broadcaster ID, number of services, andBASE_DP_ID. For fast service acquisition, in addition to FIC, base DPcan be decoded using BASE_DP_ID. Other than the content it carries, abase DP is encoded and mapped to a frame in exactly the same way as anormal DP. Therefore, no additional description is required for a baseDP. The FIC data is generated and consumed in the Management Layer. Thecontent of FIC data is as described in the Management Layerspecification.

The FIC data is optional and the use of FIC is signaled by the FIC_FLAGparameter in the static part of the PLS2. If FIC is used, FIC_FLAG isset to ‘1’ and the signaling field for FIC is defined in the static partof PLS2. Signaled in this field are FIC_VERSION, and FIC_LENGTH_BYTE.FIC uses the same modulation, coding and time interleaving parameters asPLS2. FIC shares the same signaling parameters such as PLS2_MOD andPLS2_FEC. FIC data, if any, is mapped immediately after PLS2 or EAC ifany. FIC is not preceded by any normal DPs, auxiliary streams or dummycells. The method of mapping FIC cells is exactly the same as that ofEAC which is again the same as PLS.

Without EAC after PLS, FIC cells are mapped from the next cell of thePLS2 in an increasing order of the cell index as shown in an example in(a). Depending on the FIC data size, FIC cells may be mapped over a fewsymbols, as shown in (b).

FIC cells follow immediately after the last cell of the PLS2, andmapping continues downward until the last cell index of the last FSS. Ifthe total number of required FIC cells exceeds the number of remainingactive carriers of the last FSS, mapping proceeds to the next symbol andcontinues in exactly the same manner as FSS(s). The next symbol formapping in this case is the normal data symbol which has more activecarriers than a FSS.

If EAS messages are transmitted in the current frame, EAC precedes FIC,and FIC cells are mapped from the next cell of the EAC in an increasingorder of the cell index as shown in (b).

After FIC mapping is completed, one or more DPs are mapped, followed byauxiliary streams, if any, and dummy cells.

FIG. 20 illustrates a type of DP according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

(a) shows type 1 DP and (b) shows type 2 DP.

After the preceding channels, i.e., PLS, EAC and FIC, are mapped, cellsof the DPs are mapped. A DP is categorized into one of two typesaccording to mapping method:

Type 1 DP: DP is mapped by TDM

Type 2 DP: DP is mapped by FDM

The type of DP is indicated by DP_TYPE field in the static part of PLS2.FIG. 20 illustrates the mapping orders of Type 1 DPs and Type 2 DPs.Type 1 DPs are first mapped in the increasing order of cell index, andthen after reaching the last cell index, the symbol index is increasedby one. Within the next symbol, the DP continues to be mapped in theincreasing order of cell index starting from p=0. With a number of DPsmapped together in one frame, each of the Type 1 DPs are grouped intime, similar to TDM multiplexing of DPs.

Type 2 DPs are first mapped in the increasing order of symbol index, andthen after reaching the last OFDM symbol of the frame, the cell indexincreases by one and the symbol index rolls back to the first availablesymbol and then increases from that symbol index. After mapping a numberof DPs together in one frame, each of the Type 2 DPs are grouped infrequency together, similar to FDM multiplexing of DPs.

Type 1 DPs and Type 2 DPs can coexist in a frame if needed with onerestriction; Type 1 DPs always precede Type 2 DPs. The total number ofOFDM cells carrying Type 1 and Type 2 DPs cannot exceed the total numberof OFDM cells available for transmission of DPs:D _(DP1) +D _(DP2) ≦D _(DP)  [Expression 2]

where D_(DP1) is the number of OFDM cells occupied by Type 1 DPs,D_(DP2) is the number of cells occupied by Type 2 DPs. Since PLS, EAC,FIC are all mapped in the same way as Type 1 DP, they all follow “Type 1mapping rule”. Hence, overall, Type 1 mapping always precedes Type 2mapping.

FIG. 21 illustrates DP mapping according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

(a) shows an addressing of OFDM cells for mapping type 1 DPs and (b)shows an addressing of OFDM cells for mapping for type 2 DPs.

Addressing of OFDM cells for mapping Type 1 DPs (0, . . . , D_(DP1)−1)is defined for the active data cells of Type 1 DPs. The addressingscheme defines the order in which the cells from the TIs for each of theType 1 DPs are allocated to the active data cells. It is also used tosignal the locations of the DPs in the dynamic part of the PLS2.

Without EAC and FIC, address 0 refers to the cell immediately followingthe last cell carrying PLS in the last FSS. If EAC is transmitted andFIC is not in the corresponding frame, address 0 refers to the cellimmediately following the last cell carrying EAC. If FIC is transmittedin the corresponding frame, address 0 refers to the cell immediatelyfollowing the last cell carrying FIC. Address 0 for Type 1 DPs can becalculated considering two different cases as shown in (a). In theexample in (a), PLS, EAC and FIC are assumed to be all transmitted.Extension to the cases where either or both of EAC and FIC are omittedis straightforward. If there are remaining cells in the FSS aftermapping all the cells up to FIC as shown on the left side of (a).

Addressing of OFDM cells for mapping Type 2 DPs (0, D_(DP2)−1) isdefined for the active data cells of Type 2 DPs. The addressing schemedefines the order in which the cells from the TIs for each of the Type 2DPs are allocated to the active data cells. It is also used to signalthe locations of the DPs in the dynamic part of the PLS2.

Three slightly different cases are possible as shown in (b). For thefirst case shown on the left side of (b), cells in the last FSS areavailable for Type 2 DP mapping. For the second case shown in themiddle, FIC occupies cells of a normal symbol, but the number of FICcells on that symbol is not larger than C_(FSS). The third case, shownon the right side in (b), is the same as the second case except that thenumber of FIC cells mapped on that symbol exceeds C_(FSS).

The extension to the case where Type 1 DP(s) precede Type 2 DP(s) isstraightforward since PLS, EAC and FIC follow the same “Type 1 mappingrule” as the Type 1 DP(s).

A data pipe unit (DPU) is a basic unit for allocating data cells to a DPin a frame.

A DPU is defined as a signaling unit for locating DPs in a frame. A CellMapper 7010 may map the cells produced by the TIs for each of the DPs. ATime interleaver 5050 outputs a series of TI-blocks and each TI-blockcomprises a variable number of XFECBLOCKs which is in turn composed of aset of cells. The number of cells in an XFECBLOCK, N_(cells), isdependent on the FECBLOCK size, N_(ldpc), and the number of transmittedbits per constellation symbol. A DPU is defined as the greatest commondivisor of all possible values of the number of cells in a XFECBLOCK,N_(cells), supported in a given PHY profile. The length of a DPU incells is defined as L_(DPU). Since each PHY profile supports differentcombinations of FECBLOCK size and a different number of bits perconstellation symbol, L_(DPU) is defined on a PHY profile basis.

FIG. 22 illustrates an FEC structure according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 22 illustrates an FEC structure according to an embodiment of thepresent invention before bit interleaving. As above mentioned, Data FECencoder may perform the FEC encoding on the input BBF to generateFECBLOCK procedure using outer coding (BCH), and inner coding (LDPC).The illustrated FEC structure corresponds to the FECBLOCK. Also, theFECBLOCK and the FEC structure have same value corresponding to a lengthof LDPC codeword.

The BCH encoding is applied to each BBF (K_(bch) bits), and then LDPCencoding is applied to BCH-encoded BBF (K_(ldpc) bits=N_(bch) bits) asillustrated in FIG. 22.

The value of N_(ldpc) is either 64800 bits (long FECBLOCK) or 16200 bits(short FECBLOCK).

The below table 28 and table 29 show FEC encoding parameters for a longFECBLOCK and a short FECBLOCK, respectively.

TABLE 28 BCH error LDPC correction Rate N_(ldpc) K_(ldpc) K_(bch)capability N_(bch) − K_(bch)  5/15 64800 21600 21408 12 192  6/15 2592025728  7/15 30240 30048  8/15 34560 34368  9/15 38880 38688 10/15 4320043008 11/15 47520 47328 12/15 51840 51648 13/15 56160 55968

TABLE 29 BCH error LDPC correction Rate N_(ldpc) K_(ldpc) K_(bch)capability N_(bch) − K_(bch)  5/15 16200 5400 5232 12 168  6/15 64806312  7/15 7560 7392  8/15 8640 8472  9/15 9720 9552 10/15 10800 1063211/15 11880 11712 12/15 12960 12792 13/15 14040 13872

The details of operations of the BCH encoding and LDPC encoding are asfollows:

A 12-error correcting BCH code is used for outer encoding of the BBF.The BCH generator polynomial for short FECBLOCK and long FECBLOCK areobtained by multiplying together all polynomials.

LDPC code is used to encode the output of the outer BCH encoding. Togenerate a completed B_(lddp), (FECBLOCK), P_(ldpc) (parity bits) isencoded systematically from each I_(ldpc) (BCH-encoded BBF), andappended to I_(ldpc). The completed B_(ldpc) (FECBLOCK) are expressed asfollow Expression.B _(ldpc) =[I _(ldpc) P _(ldpc) ]=[i ₀ ,i ₁ , . . . ,i _(K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹,p ₀ ,p ₁ , . . . ,p _(N) _(ldpc) _(−K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹]  [Expression 3]

The parameters for long FECBLOCK and short FECBLOCK are given in theabove table 28 and 29, respectively.

The detailed procedure to calculate N_(ldpc)−K_(ldpc) parity bits forlong FECBLOCK, is as follows:

1) Initialize the parity bits,p ₀ =p ₁ =p ₂ = . . . =p _(N) _(ldpc) _(−K) _(ldpc) ⁻¹=0  [Expression 4]

2) Accumulate the first information bit—i₀, at parity bit addressesspecified in the first row of an addresses of parity check matrix. Thedetails of addresses of parity check matrix will be described later. Forexample, for rate 13/15:p ₉₈₃ =p ₉₈₃ ⊕i ₀ p ₂₈₁₅ =p ₂₈₁₅ ⊕i ₀p ₄₈₃₇ =p ₄₈₃₇ ⊕i ₀ p ₄₉₈₉ =p ₄₉₈₉ ⊕i ₀p ₆₁₃₈ =p ₆₁₃₈ ⊕i ₀ p ₆₄₅₈ =p ₆₄₅₈ ⊕i ₀p ₆₉₂₁ =p ₆₉₂₁ ⊕i ₀ p ₆₉₇₄ =p ₆₉₇₄ ⊕i ₀p ₇₅₇₂ =p ₇₅₇₂ ⊕i ₀ p ₈₂₆₀ =p ₈₂₆₀ ⊕i ₀p ₈₄₉₆ =p ₈₄₉₆ ⊕i ₀  [Expression 5]

3) For the next 359 information bits, i_(s), s=1, 2, . . . , 359accumulate i_(s) at parity bit addresses using following Expression.{x+(s mod 360)×Q _(ldpc)} mod(N _(ldpc) −K _(ldpc))  [Expression 6]

where x denotes the address of the parity bit accumulator correspondingto the first bit i₀, and Q_(ldpc) is a code rate dependent constantspecified in the addresses of parity check matrix. Continuing with theexample, Q_(ldpc)=24 for rate 13/15, so for information bit i₁, thefollowing operations are performed:p ₁₀₀₇ =p ₁₀₀₇ ⊕i ₁ p ₂₈₃₉ =p ₂₈₃₉ ⊕i ₁p ₄₈₆₁ =p ₄₈₆₁ ⊕i ₁ p ₅₀₁₃ =p ₅₀₁₃ ⊕i ₁p ₆₁₆₂ =p ₆₁₆₂ ⊕i ₁ p ₆₄₈₂ =p ₆₄₈₂ ⊕i ₁p ₆₉₄₅ =p ₆₉₄₅ ⊕i ₁ p ₆₉₉₈ =p ₆₉₉₈ ⊕i ₁p ₇₅₉₆ =p ₇₅₉₆ ⊕i ₁ p ₈₂₈₄ =p ₈₂₈₄ ⊕i ₁p ₈₅₂₀ =p ₈₅₂₀ ⊕i ₁  [Expression 7]

4) For the 361^(st) information bit i₃₆₀, the addresses of the paritybit accumulators are given in the second row of the addresses of paritycheck matrix. In a similar manner the addresses of the parity bitaccumulators for the following 359 information bits i_(s), s=361, 362, .. . , 719 are obtained using the Expression 6, where x denotes theaddress of the parity bit accumulator corresponding to the informationbit i₃₆₀, i.e., the entries in the second row of the addresses of paritycheck matrix.

5) In a similar manner, for every group of 360 new information bits, anew row from addresses of parity check matrixes used to find theaddresses of the parity bit accumulators.

After all of the information bits are exhausted, the final parity bitsare obtained as follows:

6) Sequentially perform the following operations starting with i=1p _(i) =p _(i) ⊕p _(i-1) ,i=1,2, . . . ,N _(lpdc) −K_(lpdc)−1  [Expression 8]

where final content of p_(i), i=0, 1, . . . , K_(ldpc)−1 is equal to theparity bit p_(i).

TABLE 30 Code Rate Q_(ldpc)  5/15 120  6/15 108  7/15 96  8/15 84  9/1572 10/15 60 11/15 48 12/15 36 13/15 24

This LDPC encoding procedure for a short FECBLOCK is in accordance witht LDPC encoding procedure for the long FECBLOCK, except replacing thetable 30 with table 31, and replacing the addresses of parity checkmatrix for the long FECBLOCK with the addresses of parity check matrixfor the short FECBLOCK.

TABLE 31 Code Rate Q_(ldpc)  5/15 30  6/15 27  7/15 24  8/15 21  9/15 1810/15 15 11/15 12 12/15 9 13/15 6

FIG. 23 illustrates a bit interleaving according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

The outputs of the LDPC encoder are bit-interleaved, which consists ofparity interleaving followed by Quasi-Cyclic Block (QCB) interleavingand inner-group interleaving.

(a) shows Quasi-Cyclic Block (QCB) interleaving and (b) showsinner-group interleaving.

The FECBLOCK may be parity interleaved. At the output of the parityinterleaving, the LDPC codeword consists of 180 adjacent QC blocks in along FECBLOCK and 45 adjacent QC blocks in a short FECBLOCK. Each QCblock in either a long or short FECBLOCK consists of 360 bits. Theparity interleaved LDPC codeword is interleaved by QCB interleaving. Theunit of QCB interleaving is a QC block. The QC blocks at the output ofparity interleaving are permutated by QCB interleaving as illustrated inFIG. 23, where N_(cells)=64800/η_(mod) or 16200/η_(mod) according to theFECBLOCK length. The QCB interleaving pattern is unique to eachcombination of modulation type and LDPC code rate.

After QCB interleaving, inner-group interleaving is performed accordingto modulation type and order (η_(mod)) which is defined in the belowtable 32. The number of QC blocks for one inner-group, N_(QCB) _(_)_(IG), is also defined.

TABLE 32 Modulation type η_(mod) N_(QCB)_IG QAM-16 4 2 NUC-16 4 4 NUQ-646 3 NUC-64 6 6 NUQ-256 8 4 NUC-256 8 8 NUQ-1024 10 5 NUC-1024 10 10

The inner-group interleaving process is performed with N_(QCB) _(_)_(IG) QC blocks of the QCB interleaving output. Inner-group interleavinghas a process of writing and reading the bits of the inner-group using360 columns and N_(QCB) _(_) _(IG) rows. In the write operation, thebits from the QCB interleaving output are written row-wise. The readoperation is performed column-wise to read out m bits from each row,where m is equal to 1 for NUC and 2 for NUQ.

FIG. 24 illustrates a cell-word demultiplexing according to anembodiment of the present invention.

(a) shows a cell-word demultiplexing for 8 and 12 bpcu MIMO and (b)shows a cell-word demultiplexing for 10 bpcu MIMO.

Each cell word (c_(0,1), c_(1,1), . . . , c_(mmod-1,1)) of the bitinterleaving output is demultiplexed into (d_(1,0,m), d_(1,1,m) . . . ,d_(1,nmod-1,m)) and (d_(2,0,m), d_(2,1,m) . . . , d_(2,nmod-1,m)) asshown in (a), which describes the cell-word demultiplexing process forone XFECBLOCK.

For the 10 bpcu MIMO case using different types of NUQ for MIMOencoding, the Bit Interleaver for NUQ-1024 is re-used. Each cell word(c_(0,1), c_(1,1), . . . , c_(9,1)) of the Bit Interleaver output isdemultiplexed into (d_(1,0,m), d_(1,1,m) . . . , d_(1,3,m)) and(d_(2,0,m), d_(2,1,m) . . . , d_(2,5,m)), as shown in (b).

FIG. 25 illustrates a time interleaving according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

(a) to (c) show examples of TI mode.

The time interleaver operates at the DP level. The parameters of timeinterleaving (TI) may be set differently for each DP.

The following parameters, which appear in part of the PLS2-STAT data,configure the TI:

DP_TI_TYPE (allowed values: 0 or 1): Represents the TI mode; ‘0’indicates the mode with multiple TI blocks (more than one TI block) perTI group. In this case, one TI group is directly mapped to one frame (nointer-frame interleaving). ‘1’ indicates the mode with only one TI blockper TI group. In this case, the TI block may be spread over more thanone frame (inter-frame interleaving).

DP_TI_LENGTH: If DP_TI_TYPE=‘0’, this parameter is the number of TIblocks N_(TT) per TI group. For DP_TI_TYPE=‘1’, this parameter is thenumber of frames P_(I) spread from one TI group.

DP_NUM_BLOCK_MAX (allowed values: 0 to 1023): Represents the maximumnumber of XFECBLOCKs per TI group.

DP_FRAME_INTERVAL (allowed values: 1, 2, 4, 8): Represents the number ofthe frames L_(ump) between two successive frames carrying the same DP ofa given PHY profile.

DP_TI_BYPASS (allowed values: 0 or 1): If time interleaving is not usedfor a DP, this parameter is set to ‘1’. It is set to ‘0’ if timeinterleaving is used.

Additionally, the parameter DP_NUM_BLOCK from the PLS2-DYN data is usedto represent the number of XFECBLOCKs carried by one TI group of the DP.

When time interleaving is not used for a DP, the following TI group,time interleaving operation, and TI mode are not considered. However,the Delay Compensation block for the dynamic configuration informationfrom the scheduler will still be required. In each DP, the XFECBLOCKsreceived from the SSD/MIMO encoding are grouped into TI groups. That is,each TI group is a set of an integer number of XFECBLOCKs and willcontain a dynamically variable number of XFECBLOCKs. The number ofXFECBLOCKs in the TI group of index n is denoted by N_(xBLOCK) _(_)_(Group)(n) and is signaled as DP_NUM_BLOCK in the PLS2-DYN data. Notethat N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(Group)(n) may vary from the minimum value of 0 tothe maximum value N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(Group) _(_) _(MAX) (corresponding toDP_NUM_BLOCK_MAX) of which the largest value is 1023.

Each TI group is either mapped directly onto one frame or spread overP_(I) frames. Each TI group is also divided into more than one TI blocks(N_(TI)), where each TI block corresponds to one usage of timeinterleaver memory. The TI blocks within the TI group may containslightly different numbers of XFECBLOCKs. If the TI group is dividedinto multiple TI blocks, it is directly mapped to only one frame. Thereare three options for time interleaving (except the extra option ofskipping the time interleaving) as shown in the below table 33.

TABLE 33 Modes Descriptions Option-1 Each TI group contains one TI blockand is mapped directly to one frame as shown in (a). This option issignaled in the PLS2-STAT by DP_TI_TYPE = ‘0’ and DP_TI_LENGTH =‘1’(N_(TI) = 1). Option-2 Each TI group contains one TI block and ismapped to more than one frame. (b) shows an example, where one TI groupis mapped to two frames, i.e., DP_TI_LENGTH = ‘2’ (P_(I) = 2) andDP_FRAME_INTERVAL (I_(JUMP) = 2). This provides greater time diversityfor low data-rate services. This option is signaled in the PLS2-STAT byDP_TI_TYPE = ‘1’. Option-3 Each TI group is divided into multiple TIblocks and is mapped directly to one frame as shown in (c). Each TIblock may use full TI memory, so as to provide the maximum bit-rate fora DP. This option is signaled in the PLS2-STAT signaling by DP_TI_TYPE =‘0’ and DP_TI_LENGTH = N_(TI), while P_(I) = 1.

In each DP, the TI memory stores the input XFECBLOCKs (output XFECBLOCKsfrom the SSD/MIMO encoding block). Assume that input XFECBLOCKs aredefined as

(d_(n, s, 0, 0), d_(n, s, 0, 1), …  , d_(n, s, 0, N_(cells) − 1), d_(n, s, 1, 0), …  , d_(n, s, 1, N_(cells) − 1), …  ,   d_(n, s, N_(xBLOCK⁻TI)(n, s) − 1, 0), …  , d_(n, s, N_(xBLOCK⁻TI)(n, s) − 1, N_(cells) − 1)),

where d_(n,s,r,q) is the qth cell of the rth XFECBLOCK in the sth TIblock of the nth TI group and represents the outputs of SSD and MIMOencodings as follows.

$d_{n,s,r,q} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}{f_{n,s,r,q},} & {{theoutputofSSD}\mspace{14mu}\ldots\mspace{14mu}{encoding}} \\{g_{n,s,r,q},} & {theoutputofMIMOencoding}\end{matrix}.} \right.$

In addition, assume that output XFECBLOCKs from the time interleaver aredefined as

(h_(n, s, 0), h_(n, s, 1), …  , h_(n, s, i), …  , h_(n, s, N_(xBLOCK⁻TI)(n, s) × N_(cells) − 1)),

where h_(n,s,i) is the ith output cell (for i=0, . . . , N_(xBLOCK) _(_)_(TI)(n,s)×N_(cells)−1) in the sth TI block of the nth TI group.

Typically, the time interleaver will also act as a buffer for DP dataprior to the process of frame building. This is achieved by means of twomemory banks for each DP. The first TI-block is written to the firstbank. The second TI-block is written to the second bank while the firstbank is being read from and so on.

The TI is a twisted row-column block interleaver. For the sth TI blockof the nth TI group, the number of rows N_(r) of a TI memory is equal tothe number of cells N_(cells), i.e., N_(r)=N_(cells) while the number ofcolumns N_(c) is equal to the number N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI)(n,s).

FIG. 26 illustrates the basic operation of a twisted row-column blockinterleaver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

shows a writing operation in the time interleaver and (b) shows areading operation in the time interleaver The first XFECBLOCK is writtencolumn-wise into the first column of the TI memory, and the secondXFECBLOCK is written into the next column, and so on as shown in (a).Then, in the interleaving array, cells are read out diagonal-wise.During diagonal-wise reading from the first row (rightwards along therow beginning with the left-most column) to the last row, N_(r) cellsare read out as shown in (b). In detail, assuming z_(n,s,i)(i=0, . . . ,N_(r)N_(c)) as the TI memory cell position to be read sequentially, thereading process in such an interleaving array is performed bycalculating the row index R_(n,s,i), the column index C_(n,s,i), and theassociated twisting parameter T_(n,s,i) as follows expression.

$\begin{matrix}{{{GENERATE}\left( {R_{n,s,i},C_{n,s,i}} \right)} = \left\{ {{R_{n,s,i} = {{mod}\left( {i,N_{r}} \right)}},{T_{n,s,i} = {{mod}\left( {{S_{shift} \times R_{n,s,i}},N_{c}} \right)}},{C_{n,s,i} = {{mod}\left( {{T_{n,s,i} + \left\lfloor \frac{i}{N_{r}} \right\rfloor},N_{c}} \right)}}} \right\}} & \left\lbrack {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 9} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

where S_(shift) is a common shift value for the diagonal-wise readingprocess regardless of Nx_(BLOCK) _(_) _(TI)(n,s), and it is determinedby N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_) _(MAX) given in the PLS2-STAT as followsexpression.

$\begin{matrix}{{for}\left\{ {\begin{matrix}{{N_{{xBLOCK}\;\_\;{TI}\;\_\;{MA}\; X}^{\prime} = {N_{{xBLOCK}\;\_\;{TI}\;\_\;{MA}\; X} + 1}},} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} N_{{xBLOCK}\;\_\;{TI}\;\_\;{MA}\; X}{mod}\; 2} = 0} \\{{N_{{xBLOCK}\;\_\;{TI}\;\_\;{MA}\; X}^{\prime} = N_{{xBLOCK}\;\_\;{TI}\;\_\;{MA}\; X}},} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} N_{{xBLOCK}\;\_\;{TI}\;\_\;{MA}\; X}{mod}\; 2} = 1}\end{matrix},{S_{shift} = \frac{N_{{xBLOCK}\;\_\;{TI}\;\_\;{MA}\; X}^{\prime} - 1}{2}}} \right.} & \left\lbrack {{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 10} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

As a result, the cell positions to be read are calculated by acoordinate as z_(n,s,i)=N_(r)C_(n,s,i)+R_(n,s,i).

FIG. 27 illustrates an operation of a twisted row-column blockinterleaver according to another embodiment of the present invention.

More specifically, FIG. 27 illustrates the interleaving array in the TImemory for each TI group, including virtual XFECBLOCKs when N_(xBLOCK)_(_) _(TI)(0,0)=3, N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI)(1,0)=6, N_(xBLOCK) _(_)_(TI)(2,0)=5.

The variable number N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI)(n,s)=N_(r) will be less thanor equal to N′_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_) _(MAX) Thus, in order to achievea single-memory deinterleaving at the receiver side, regardless ofN_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI)(n,s), the interleaving array for use in a twistedrow-column block interleaver is set to the size ofN_(r)×N_(c)=N_(cells)×N′_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_) _(MAX) by insertingthe virtual XFECBLOCKs into the TI memory and the reading process isaccomplished as follow expression.

[Expression 11] p = 0; for i = 0;i < N_(cells)N′_(xBLOCK)_TI_MAX;i = i +1 {GENERATE(R_(n,s,i),C_(n,s,i)); V_(i) = N_(r)C_(n,s,j) + R_(n,s,j) ifV_(i) < N_(cells)N_(xBLOCK)_TI (n,s) { Z_(n,s,p) = V_(i); p = p + 1; } }

The number of TI groups is set to 3. The option of time interleaver issignaled in the PLS2-STAT data by DP_TI_TYPE, ‘0’,DP_FRAME_INTERVAL=‘1’, and DP_TI_LENGTH=‘1’, i.e., N_(TI)=1, I_(JUMP)=1,and P_(I)=1. The number of XFECBLOCKs, each of which has N_(cells)=30cells, per TI group is signaled in the PLS2-DYN data by N_(xBLOCK) _(_)_(TI)(0,0)=3, N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI)(1,0)=6, and N_(xBLOCK) _(_)_(TI)(2,0)=5, respectively. The maximum number of XFECBLOCK is signaledin the PLS2-STAT data by N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_) _(MAX), which leadsto └N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_) _(MAX)/N_(TI)┘=_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_)_(MAX)=6.

FIG. 28 illustrates a diagonal-wise reading pattern of a twistedrow-column block interleaver according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

More specifically FIG. 28 shows a diagonal-wise reading pattern fromeach interleaving array with parameters of N′_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_)_(MAX)=7 and S_(shift)=(7−1)/2=3. Note that in the reading process shownas pseudocode above, if V_(i)≧N_(cells)N_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI)(n,s) thevalue of V_(i) is skipped and the next calculated value of V_(i) isused.

FIG. 29 illustrates interleaved XFECBLOCKs from each interleaving arrayaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 illustrates the interleaved XFECBLOCKs from each interleavingarray with parameters of N′_(xBLOCK) _(_) _(TI) _(_) _(MAX)=7 andS_(shift)=3.

FIG. 30 shows a mode adaptation module according to another embodimentof the present invention.

The input formatting module described above may include the modeadaptation module as described in the foregoing. The mode adaptationmodule shown in FIG. 30 may correspond to another embodiment of the modeadaptation module described above.

The mode adaptation module according to another embodiment may include apre-processing block, an input stream synchronizer block, a compensationdelay block, a null packet deletion block, a header compression block, acyclical redundancy check (CRC) encoder block, a BB frame slicer block,and/or a BB frame header insertion block.

Here, the pre-processing block may correspond to the above-describedinput stream splitter. The input stream synchronizer block maycorrespond to the above-described input stream synchronizer. Thecompensation delay block may correspond to the above-describedcompensation delay block. The null packet deletion block may correspondto the above-described null packet deletion block.

The header compression block may correspond to the above-described headcompression block. The header compression block may correspond toanother example of the above-described head compression block. Thepresent invention may relate to the header compression block in the modeadaptation module shown in FIG. 30. The present invention related to theheader compression block is described below.

The CRC encoder block may correspond to the above-described CRC-8encoder. The CRC encoder block shown in FIG. 30 may perform CRC-16encoding and CRC-32 encoding depending on an embodiment. CRC encoding tobe performed may be signaled in a PLS2 field.

The BB frame slicer block maps a plurality of input bits of an inputstream to an internal logical-bit format. The BB frame slicer blockallocates input bits of an input stream suitable for an available datafield capacity. The BB frame slicer block may allocate a plurality ofuser packets to a payload area of a BB frame. As a result, a user packetmay be cut. In a payload area of a subsequent BB frame, a location of afirst user packet which is intact (not cut) may be signaled by a fieldreferred to as SYNCD.

The BB frame header insertion block may correspond to theabove-described BB header insertion block.

The above-described blocks may be omitted depending on an embodiment. Inaddition, locations of the above-described blocks may be changeddepending on an embodiment.

The present invention proposes a header compression scheme usingdeletion of a transport stream (TS) packet header. The headercompression scheme proposed in the present invention may be performed bythe above-described header compression block. A TS corresponding to atype of input stream may include a plurality of contiguous TS packets.Each of the TS packets may include a TS packet header.

When a TS is input as an input stream to a next generation broadcastsystem, a TS packet header may be deleted to enhance transmissionefficiency. When all TS packet header values of a plurality of TSpackets except for continuity counter values are the same, the presentinvention proposes a scheme of deleting the same TS headers except for afirst TS header.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a sync bite (8bits) of a TS packet header may be replaced by a NUM_TS field. NUM_TSmay signal the number of deleted TS packet headers. According to anotherembodiment of the present invention, a sync bit of a TS packet headermay be deleted, and a 4-bit continuity counter may be replaced by aNUM-TS field. In this case, NUM_TS may signal the number of deleted TSpacket headers.

According to the scheme of deleting TS packet headers proposed in thepresent invention, it is possible to enhance compression efficiency ofan input packet, and enhance transmission efficiency of data. Thepresent invention is specifically described below.

FIG. 31 shows a header compression block according to another embodimentof the present invention.

The header compression block according to another embodiment of thepresent invention may correspond to a header compression block withinthe above-described mode adaptation module according to anotherembodiment of the present invention. As described in the foregoing, theheader compression scheme proposed in the present invention may beperformed by the header compression block shown in FIG. 31.

The header compression block according to another embodiment of thepresent invention may include a PID check block, a TS packet deletionblock, and/or a TS header replacement block.

The PID check block may detect input TS packets continuously having thesame TS packet headers among input TS packets. Here, a PID refers to apacket identifier. The PID check block determines that input TS packetshave the same TS packet headers when the TS packet headers have the samevalue except for continuity counters. The reason is that values ofcontinuity counters successively increase.

The TS packet deletion block may delete packet headers of input TSpackets except for a packet header of a first input TS packet amonginput TS packets detected by the PID check block. Here, the first inputTS packet may refer to a first input TS packet among contiguous input TSpackets. The deleted packet headers have the same values except forcontinuity counters.

The TS header replacement block may transform a packet header of a firstinput TS packet among input TS packets detected by the PID check block.A sync byte may be deleted in the packet header of the first input TSpacket. Here, the sync byte corresponds to a field indicating a start ofan input packet, and may be used for synchronization of an input stream.In general, the sync byte may have a value of 0x47.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the TS headerreplacement block may insert a NUM_TS field into a position of deletedsync byte. The NUM_TS field is a field that signals the number ofdeleted TS packet headers. NUM_TS corresponds to 8 bits, and mayindicate that 0 to 255 TS packet headers are deleted. A NUM_TS value00000000 indicates that no TS packet header is deleted.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the TS headerreplacement block may replace a continuity counter field with a NUM_TSfield. Similarly, the NUM_TS field may signal the number of deleted TSpacket headers. However, unlike the embodiment in which NUM_TS replacesa sync bite corresponding to 8 bits, a continuity counter has a size of4 bits. Therefore, in this embodiment, NUM_TS may use 4 bits to indicatethat 0 to 16 TS packet headers are deleted. Similarly, a NUM_TS value0000 indicates that no TS packet header is deleted.

FIG. 32 shows an output processor according to another embodiment of thepresent invention.

The output processor may be a module or a block positioned on areceiving side. The output processor may be a module or a blockcorresponding to the above-described input formatting block.

The output processor may perform a reverse process of acompression/signal processing process applied to enhance transmissionefficiency in a transmission device. A final output of the outputprocessor may correspond to a signal input to the transmission device.The final output may be an MPEG-TS, an IP stream (v4 or v6), and/or ageneric stream.

A BB frame header parser block may parse a BB frame header from a BBframe. In this way, the BB frame header parser block may acquire anSTUFFI and/or SYNCD value. Separated and received signals may becombined using the STUFFI and/or SYNCD value.

A CRC detector block may detect whether CRC encoding is performed. TheCRC encoding may be performed by determining CRC encoding performed at atransmitting end. As described in the foregoing, examples of the CRCencoding may include CRC-8 encoding, CRC-16 encoding, CRC-32 encoding,and the like.

A header decompression block may be a component corresponding to theheader compression block of the transmitting end. The headerdecompression block may restore compression of a compressed packetheader. As described in the foregoing, a packet header may be compressedto enhance transmission efficiency of a TS or IP input stream.

TS packets processed by the scheme of deleting TS packet headersproposed in the present invention may be restored by the headerdecompression block. A detailed restoration process is described below.

A null packet insertion block may restore a deleted null packet within astream with reference to information about a restored deleted nullpacket (DNP), and may output common data. The null packet within thestream may be deleted at the transmitting end. The DNP information maybe received from a signaling block or the BB frame header parser block.

A TS clock regeneration block may restore detailed time synchronizationof an output packet based on input stream clock reference (ISCR)information. Depending on an embodiment, the ISCR information may bereceived from the signaling block or the BB frame header.

A de-jitter buffer block may compensate for a delay arbitrarily insertedat the transmitting end to synchronize multiple data pipes with eachother according to a restored time to output (TTO) parameter.

A TS recombining block may recombine common data output from theabove-described null packet insertion block and related data pipes torestore and output an MPEG-TS, an IP stream (v4 or v6), or a genericstream. The above-described TTO, DNP, and ISCR information may beacquired using a BB frame header.

The above-described blocks may be omitted depending on an embodiment. Inaddition, positions of the above-described blocks may be changeddepending on an embodiment.

FIG. 33 shows a header decompression block according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

The header decompression block according to another embodiment of thepresent invention may be the header decompression block within theoutput processor according to another embodiment of the presentinvention described above. As described in the foregoing, informationcompressed by the header compression scheme proposed in the presentinvention may be restored by the header decompression block shown inFIG. 33.

The header decompression block according to another embodiment of thepresent invention may include a TS header parsing block and/or a deletedTS header regeneration block.

The TS header parsing block may parse an initially received TS packetheader. Here, the initially received TS packet header refers to a packetheader of a first TS packet among contiguous TS packets having the sameTS packet headers at a transmitting end. The TS header parsing block mayacquire a NUM_TS field value by parsing the initially received TS packetheader. The TS header parsing block may count deleted TS packet headersusing the NUM_TS field value.

In an embodiment of the present invention in which a sync byte isreplaced by NUM_TS, the TS header parsing block may acquire a continuitycounter value of the initially received TS packet header to restorecontinuity counters of the deleted packet headers. In another embodimentof the present invention in which a continuity counter is replaced byNUM_TS, an initially received TS packet header may not include acontinuity counter value.

The deleted TS header regeneration block may restore deleted TS packetheaders at the transmitting end. In this instance, a NUM_TS field valueis used so that TS packet headers corresponding to the NUM_TS fieldvalue may be restored.

A plurality of TS packet headers may not be deleted at the transmittingend. A distance between a current non-deleted TS packet header and asubsequent non-deleted TS packet header may be 184*(NUM_TS+1) bytes.According to an embodiment, the length of a TS packet may be 188 bytes,and the length of a TS packet having a packet header deleted at thetransmitting end may be 184 bytes. Therefore, a subsequent TS packetheader may be present after 184*(NUM_TS+1) bytes.

The deleted TS header regeneration block may restore continuity countervalues. Deleted continuity counter values successively increase. Thus,continuity counter values of received TS packet headers may be restoredso that restored continuity counter values successively increase by 1.

An initial value of successively increasing continuity counters maychange depending on an embodiment of the present invention. In anembodiment of the present invention in which a sync byte is replaced byNUM_TS, a continuity counter value of a TS packet header which is notdeleted at the transmitting end may be the initial value. The continuitycounter value of the TS packet header which is not deleted at thetransmitting end may be acquired by the TS header parsing block asdescribed above. In another embodiment of the present invention in whicha continuity counter is replaced by NUM_TS, a continuity counter of a TSpacket received without an error is designated as 1, and continuitycounter values of TS packet headers restored thereafter are successivelyincreased by 1.

FIG. 34 illustrates an initial packet header which is not deleted in aheader compression scheme #1 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

The header compression scheme #1 according to the embodiment of thepresent invention is the above-described header compression schemeaccording to the embodiment in which a sync byte is replaced by NUM_TS.

As described in the foregoing, the header compression scheme #1 is ascheme of deleting TS packet headers to enhance transmission efficiency.When all values of TS packet headers of a plurality of TS packets arethe same except for continuity counter values, the same TS headersexcept for an initial TS header may be deleted.

An initial packet header which is not deleted in the header compressionscheme #1 is illustrated. A packet header on the left side is a packetheader before transformation, and a packet header on the right side is apacket header transformed according to the header compression scheme #1.According to the embodiment, a packet header may have a total size of 4bytes (32 bits).

The packet header before transformation may include information about async byte, a PID, and the like. A sync byte is a byte forsynchronization of reception, and has a constant value of 0x47 and thelike. A transport error indicator is referred to as a TEI, and indicatesthe presence of an error failed to be corrected by a demodulator. TheTEI may be used to determine whether to ignore a packet. A payload unitstart indicator may indicate whether the packet is a packetizedelementary stream (PES) packet, or includes a PSI section. A transportpriority indicates a priority of the packet. A PID is an identifier ofthe packet. A scrambling control may indicate the presence and a type ofscrambling of the packet. An adaptation field control may indicate thepresence of an adaptation field within the packet. Continuity counterscorrespond to values increasing by 1 in TS packets having the same PID,and may count from 0000 to 1111 (4 bits). A structure and specificfigures of a TS packet header may be changed according to an embodiment.

The initial packet header which is not deleted in the header compressionscheme #1 may have a deleted sync byte. A sync byte is known data, andmay be deleted. NUM_TS may be inserted into a position of the deletedsync byte. NUM_TS may signal the number of deleted TS packet headers.

In the header compression scheme #1, the transport error indicator maynot be transmitted, and a DNP may be transmitted. A DNP within a streammay be restored with reference to a value of the DNP.

FIG. 35 illustrates compression and restoration processes according tothe header compression scheme #1 in the embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 35(a) illustrates contiguous input packets before headercompression. In this embodiment, three contiguous input packets havePIDs of 0x011, and two contiguous input packets have PIDs of 0x012thereafter. In general, a TS packet has a length of 188 bytes, a packetheader has a length of 4 bytes, and a packet payload has a length of 184bytes. Continuity counter values of the input packets having PIDs of0x011 are 4, 5, and 6, respectively, and continuity counter values ofthe input packets having PIDs of 0x012 are 8 and 9, respectively.

Header compression is performed according to the above-described headercompression scheme #1. Packet headers of the first, second, and thirdinput packets have the same value except for continuity counters.Therefore, the packet headers of the second and third input packets aredeleted and not transmitted. The packet header of the first input packetis not deleted, and has a sync byte replaced by NUM_TS. Here, since thepacket headers of the second and third input packets are deleted, twopacket headers are deleted in total. Therefore, NUM_TS has a value of 2.The same value 4 may be transmitted as a continuity counter.

FIG. 35(b) illustrates input packets after header compression isperformed according to the header compression scheme #1 in theembodiment of the present invention. As described in the foregoing, thepacket headers of the second and third input packets are deleted. Thepacket header of the first input packet may be transformed andtransmitted.

FIG. 35(c) illustrates that compressed headers are restored at areceiving end. A receiver may acquire NUM_TS and a continuity countervalue from the initial packet header which is not deleted at atransmitting side. The deleted TS packet headers may be restored usingthe acquired NUM_TS. In this instance, continuity counter values of therestored TS packet headers may successively increase by 1 from thecontinuity counter value of the initial packet header as an initialvalue. Therefore, the continuity counter values may be 5 and 6,respectively.

FIG. 36 illustrates an initial packet header which is not deleted in aheader compression scheme #2 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

The header compression scheme #2 according to the embodiment of thepresent invention is the above-described header compression schemeaccording to the embodiment in which a continuity counter is replaced byNUM_TS.

As described in the foregoing, the header compression scheme #2 is ascheme of deleting TS packet headers to enhance transmission efficiency.When all values of TS packet headers of a plurality of TS packets arethe same except for continuity counter values, the same TS headersexcept for an initial TS header may be deleted.

An initial packet header which is not deleted in the header compressionscheme #2 is illustrated. A packet header on the left side is a packetheader before transformation, and a packet header on the right side is apacket header transformed according to the header compression scheme #2.

Information included in the packet header before transformation is asdescribed above.

In the header compression scheme #2, a sync byte of an initial packetheader which is not deleted may be deleted and not be transmitted.Similarly to the header compression scheme #1, a transport errorindicator is not transmitted, and is replaced by a DNP value.

In addition, a continuity counter (4 bits) may not be transmitted, andbe replaced by NUM_TS. NUM_TS may signal the number of deleted TS packetheaders.

FIG. 37 illustrates compression and restoration processes according tothe header compression scheme #2 in the embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 37(a) illustrates contiguous input packets before headercompression. Similarly to the above-described embodiment, threecontiguous input packets have PIDs of 0x011, and two contiguous inputpackets have PIDs of 0x012 thereafter. Continuity counter values of theinput packets having PIDs of 0x011 are 4, 5, and 6, respectively, andcontinuity counter values of the input packets having PIDs of 0x012 are8 and 9, respectively.

Header compression is performed according to the above-described headercompression scheme #2. Packet headers of the first, second, and thirdinput packets have the same values except for continuity counters.Therefore, the packet headers of the second and third input packets aredeleted and not transmitted.

A sync byte of the first input packet header is deleted, and acontinuity counter field is replaced by NUM_TS. Since a total of twopacket headers are deleted, NUM_TS has a value of 2.

FIG. 37(b) illustrates input packets after header compression isperformed according to the header compression scheme #2 in theembodiment of the present invention. The second and third packet headersare deleted, and the first packet header is transformed and transmitted.

FIG. 37(c) illustrates that compressed headers are restored at areceiving end. A receiver may acquire NUM_TS from the initial packetheader which is not deleted at a transmitting side. The deleted TSpacket headers may be restored using the acquired NUM_TS.

In this instance, continuity counter values are deleted at thetransmitting side and thus may not be acquired at a receiving end.Therefore, an initial value of continuity counters may be set to 1.Continuity counter values of TS packet headers may be restoredthereafter by being increased from 1 by 1. Therefore, continuity countervalues may be 1, 2, and 3 in order.

According to compression schemes, it is possible to significantlyenhance compression efficiency of TS packets. In particular, sinceexisting systems limit the length of a TS packet to a fixed value, theabove-described compression schemes may not be used. However, the headercompression schemes proposed in the present invention may be used whenthe length of a TS packet is variable, and packet compression efficiencyis enhanced and thus transmission efficiency is greatly enhanced.

According to embodiments, various header compression schemes includingthe above-described header compression schemes may be used in a system.A plurality of header compression schemes may be used for each packet orpacket group in an input stream. A used header compression scheme may besignaled in a signaling field. For example, a header compression schememay be signaled in the above-described PLS2 field.

FIG. 38 illustrates a method of transmitting broadcast signal accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

The method includes processing input streams, encoding data of the PLPs(Physical Layer Pipes)s, building at least one signal frame, and/ormodulating data by OFDM method & transmitting broadcast signals.

In step of processing input streams, the above described inputformatting module may process input streams. The input formatting modulecan process input streams into BB (Base Band) frames of PLPs. The PLPcan be divided into BB frames. The input formatting module candemultiplex input streams into PLPs.

In this embodiment, the input streams include a plurality of inputpackets. Each of the input packets can include a packet header includinginformation about synchronization of the input streams. The informationabout synchronization may correspond to a sync byte, described above.The input packet may correspond to TS packet.

The step of processing input streams further includes compressing thepacket headers and generating the BB frames. The compressing the packetheaders may correspond to packet header compression step in inputformatting module. Here, the packet headers of the input packets in theinput streams can be compressed. The generating the BB frames isconducted by using the compressed input packets. This step maycorrespond to BB frame slicer and/or BB frame header insertion block,described above.

In step of encoding data of the PLPs, the above described coding &modulation module may encode data of the PLPs. The PLP can be alsoreferred to as DP. This step may include LDPC (Low Density Parity Check)encoding, bit interleaving, mapping onto constellations, MIMO (MultiInput Multi Output) encoding, and/or time interleaving. The data in eachdata path can be encoded based on a code rate.

In step of building at least one signal frame, the above-described framestructure module can build signal frames by mapping the encoded data ofthe PLPs.

In step of modulating data by OFDM method & transmitting broadcastsignals, the above-described waveform generation module can modulatedata in OFDM method, and transmit the broadcast signals.

In a method of transmitting broadcast signals according to otherembodiment of the present invention, the information aboutsynchronization in each of the input packets are removed in step of thecompressing the packet headers. The information about synchronizationmay correspond to a sync byte, described above.

In a method of transmitting broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the step of compressing the packetheaders further includes processing a packet header of first inputpacket, and deleting packet headers of the other input packets, when atleast two successive input packets in the input streams have same packetheaders. Here, having same packet headers means that values of thepacket headers are the same except a continuity counter field. Thecontinuity counter field may correspond to continiuity counter field,described above. These additional steps may correspond to headercompression method #1, which is described above. By processing a packetheader of first input packet of the at least two successive inputpackets, and by deleting packet headers of the other input packets ofthe at least two successive input packets, the packet headers arecompressed and transmitted efficiently.

In a method of transmitting broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the continuity counter fields ineach of the at least two successive input packets increases. Thecontinuity counter fields may correspond to continuity counter fields ineach of the input packets. The continuity counter fields increases inorder from the one in the first input packet of the at least twosuccessive input packets. For example, if the first input packet hascontinuity counter field of value ‘4’, the next input packet hascontinuity counter field of value ‘5’, and the next one has ‘6’, and soon.

In a method of transmitting broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the processing a packet header offirst input packet further includes replacing the sync byte. This stepmay describe packet header compression method #1, and how the sync byteis replaced with the NUM_TS field. NUM_TS field can be also referred toas a packet number field. As described above, the NUM_TS field indicatesa number of the other input packets whose packet headers are deleted.The NUM_TS field can be used at the receiver side, when the packetheaders are regenerated.

In a method of transmitting broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the step of the encoding data ofthe PLPs further includes, encoding the BB frames of the PLPs with LDPC(Low Density Parity Check) codes, bit interleaving the LDPC encoded datain the PLPs, mapping the bit interleaved data onto constellations, MIMO(Multi Input Multi Output) encoding the mapped data, and/or timeinterleaving the MIMO encoded data.

The encoding with LDPC codes may correspond to LDPC encoding by LDPCencoder. The LDPC encoder may encode BB frames in the PLPs with LDPCcodes. Bit interleaving may correspond to bit interleaving by bitinterleaver. Constellation mapping may correspond to the constellationmapping conducted by constellation mapper. MIMO encoding can refer toMIMO encoding performed by above described MIMO encoder. Timeinterleaving can correspond to time interleaving by time interleaver.

The above-described steps can be omitted or replaced by steps executingsimilar or identical functions according to design.

FIG. 39 illustrates a method of receiving broadcast signal according toan embodiment of the present invention.

The method includes receiving broadcast signals & demodulating data byOFDM method, parsing the at least one signal frame, decoding the data ofthe PLPs, and/or processing BB frames.

In step of receiving broadcast signals & demodulating data by OFDMmethod, the above-described synchronization & demodulation modulereceives broadcast signals, and demodulates data by OFDM method.

In step of parsing the at least one signal frame, the above-describedframe parsing module parses the signal frame by demapping data of thePLPs.

In step of decoding the data of the PLPs, the above-described demapping& decoding module decodes the PLP data. Step of decoding the PLP datacan include time deinterleaving, MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output)decoding, and so on.

In step of processing BB frames, the above described output processormay conduct output processing on the BB frames of the PLPs. The outputprocessor may output streams.

In this embodiment, the step of processing BB frames further includes,decompressing a compressed packet header of data packets in the BBframes, and generating the output streams by using the decompressed datapackets. The decompressing may be conducted by header decompressionblock, described above. The generating the output streams maycorresponds to series of steps in output processor, after thedecompressing the packet header. The compressed packet header is apacket header of the first input packet, which is compressed at thetransmitter side by the packet header compression method #1.

In a method of receiving broadcast signals according to other embodimentof the present invention, information about synchronization of theoutput streams are regenerated in step of the decompressing a compressedpacket header, for each of the data packets. The information aboutsynchronization may correspond to a sync byte, described above.

In a method of receiving broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the decompressing a compressedpacket header of data packets further includes regenerating packetheaders for each of the data packets. As a reverse step of deletingpacket headers, at the transmitter side, this regeneration step isneeded at the receiver side. By using a packet number field in thecompressed packet header, the packet header can be regenerated/restored.Here, the packet number field may correspond to NUM_TS field, whichindicates a number of the data packets whose packet headers are deleted.

In a method of receiving broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the regenerated packet headers foreach of the data packets include continuity counter fields. Thecontiniuity counter field may correspond to continiuity counter field,described above. The continiuity counter fields increases in order froma continuity counter field in the compressed packet header.

In a method of receiving broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the decompressing a compressedpacket header of data packets further includes replacing the packetnumber field in the compressed packet header. The packet number field inthe compressed packet header is replaced to the information aboutsynchronization. Here, the information about synchronization is a syncbyte for the compressed packet header. This is one of the reverseprocess of the packet header compression method #1.

In a method of receiving broadcast signals according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, the decoding the data of the PLPsfurther includes, time deinterleaving the data of the PLPs, MIMO (MultiInput Multi Output) decoding the time deinterleaved data of the PLPs,demapping the MIMO decoded data from constellations, bit deinterleavingthe demapped data, and/or processing the bit deinterleaved data withLDPC (Low Density Parity Check) codes to output BB frames.

In step of time deinterleaving, the above-described time deinterleavercan conduct time deinterleaving PLP data. In step of MIMO decoding, theabove-described MIMO decoder can conduct MIMO decoding PLP data. MIMOdecoding can be conducted by using MIMO matrix including MIMOcoefficient. MIMO coefficient can be used for adjusting power imbalance.In step of demapping from constellations, the above-describedconstellation demapper can conduct demapping. The demapping can beconducted on PLP data. In step of bit deinterleaving, theabove-described bit deinterleaver can conduct bit deinterleaving. Instep of LDPC decoding. the above-described LDPC decoder (or FEC decoder)can decode PLP data according to LDPC code, to output BB frames.

The above-described steps can be omitted or replaced by steps executingsimilar or identical functions according to design.

Although the description of the present invention is explained withreference to each of the accompanying drawings for clarity, it ispossible to design new embodiment(s) by merging the embodiments shown inthe accompanying drawings with each other. And, if a recording mediumreadable by a computer, in which programs for executing the embodimentsmentioned in the foregoing description are recorded, is designed innecessity of those skilled in the art, it may belong to the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

An apparatus and method according to the present invention may benon-limited by the configurations and methods of the embodimentsmentioned in the foregoing description. And, the embodiments mentionedin the foregoing description can be configured in a manner of beingselectively combined with one another entirely or in part to enablevarious modifications.

In addition, a method according to the present invention can beimplemented with processor-readable codes in a processor-readablerecording medium provided to a network device. The processor-readablemedium may include all kinds of recording devices capable of storingdata readable by a processor. The processor-readable medium may includeone of ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tapes, floppy discs, optical datastorage devices, and the like for example and also include such acarrier-wave type implementation as a transmission via Internet.Furthermore, as the processor-readable recording medium is distributedto a computer system connected via network, processor-readable codes canbe saved and executed according to a distributive system.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

Both apparatus and method inventions are mentioned in this specificationand descriptions of both of the apparatus and method inventions may becomplementarily applicable to each other.

Various embodiments have been described in the best mode for carryingout the invention.

The present invention is available in a series of broadcast signalprovision fields.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of transmitting broadcast signals, themethod including: formatting input streams into BB (Base Band) packetsof PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes), wherein the formatting input streamsfurther includes: processing input packets in the input streams,generating the BB packets by using the processed input packets; encodingdata of the PLPs; building at least one signal frame by mapping theencoded data of the PLPs; and modulating data in the built signal frameby an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method andtransmitting the broadcast signals having the modulated data, whereinthe processing input packets further includes: determining that packetheaders of a plurality of successive input packets in one input streamhave a same value except for continuity counter fields and thecontinuity counter fields increase sequentially among the successiveinput packets, and deleting the packet headers of the successive inputpackets except for a packet header of first input packet in thesuccessive input packets.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theprocessing input packets further includes: removing sync informationfrom a start of the each input packet.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinthe processing input packets further includes: inserting numberinformation in front of the packet header of the first input packet, thenumber information indicating a number of the input packets.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the encoding data of the PLPs furtherincludes: encoding the BB packets of the PLPs with LDPC (Low DensityParity Check) codes, bit interleaving the LDPC encoded data in the PLPs,and mapping the bit interleaved data onto constellations.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the deleted packet headers are to be recovered in areceiver by using the packet header of the first input packet, and thecontinuity counter fields of the deleted packet headers are restored byincrementing a continuity counter field of the first input packetsequentially.
 6. A method of receiving broadcast signals, the methodincluding: receiving the broadcast signals having at least one signalframe and demodulating data in the at least one signal frame by an OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method; parsing the atleast one signal frame by demapping data of PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes);decoding the data of the PLPs; and processing BB (Base Band) packets ofthe PLPs to output output streams, wherein the processing BB packets ofthe PLPs further includes: decapsulating the BB packets to output datapackets, and decompressing the data packets, wherein the decompressingfurther includes: regenerating packet headers for each of the datapackets by using a packet header of first data packet, wherein theregenerated packet headers have a same value with the packet header ofthe first data packet except for continuity counter fields, thecontinuity counter fields in the regenerated packet headers are restoredby being incremented sequentially from a continuity counter field of thepacket header of the first data packet.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the decoding the data of the PLPs further includes, demappingthe data of the PLPs from constellations, bit deinterleaving thedemapped data, and processing the bit deinterleaved data with LDPC (LowDensity Parity Check) codes to output BB packets.
 8. The method of claim6, wherein the decompressing further includes: regenerating syncinformation for each of the data packets.
 9. The method of claim 6,wherein number information in front of the packet header of the firstdata packet is used for the regenerating packet headers, the numberinformation indicating a number of the data packets.
 10. An apparatusfor transmitting broadcast signals, the apparatus including: an inputformatting module that formats input streams into BB (Base Band) packetsof PLPs (Physical Layer Pipes), wherein the input formatting moduleformats the input streams by processing input packets in the inputstreams, and generate the BB packets by using the processed inputpackets; an encoding module that encodes data of the PLPs; a framebuilding module that builds at least one signal frame by mapping theencoded data of the PLPs; and a modulating module that modulates data inthe built signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing) method and transmits the broadcast signals having themodulated data, wherein the processing input packets further includes:determining that packet headers of a plurality of successive inputpackets in one input stream have a same value except for continuitycounter field and the continuity counter fields increase sequentiallyamong the successive input packets, and deleting the packet headers ofthe successive input packets except for a packet header of first inputpacket in the successive input packets.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10,wherein the processing input packets further includes: removing syncinformation from a start of the each input packet.
 12. The apparatus ofclaim 10, wherein the processing input packets further includes:inserting number information in front of the packet header of the firstinput packet, the number information indicating a number of the inputpackets.
 13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the encoding modulefurther includes, a LDPC block that encodes the BB packets of the PLPswith LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) codes, a bit interleaving blockthat bit interleaves the LDPC encoded data in the PLPs, and aconstellation mapping block that maps the bit interleaved data ontoconstellations.
 14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the deletedpacket headers are to be recovered in a receiver by using the packetheader of the first input packet, and the continuity counter fields ofthe deleted packet headers are restored by incrementing a continuitycounter field of the first input packet sequentially.
 15. An apparatusfor receiving broadcast signals, the apparatus including: a receivingmodule that receives the broadcast signals having at least one signalframe and demodulates data in the at least one signal frame by an OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method; a parsing modulethat parses the at least one signal frame by demapping data of PLPs(Physical Layer Pipes); a decoding module that decodes the data of thePLPs; and an output processing module that processes BB (Base Band)packets of the PLPs to output output streams, wherein the outputprocessing module processes the BB packets by: decapsulating the BBpackets to output data packets, and decompressing the data packets,wherein the decompressing further includes: regenerating packet headersfor each of the data packets by using a packet header of first datapacket, wherein the regenerated packet headers have a same value withthe packet header of the first data packet except for continuity counterfields, the continuity counter fields in the regenerated packet headersare restored by being incremented sequentially from a continuity counterfield of the packet header of the first data packet.
 16. The apparatusof claim 15, wherein the decompressing further includes: regeneratingsync information for each of the data packets.
 17. The apparatus ofclaim 15, wherein number information in front of the packet header ofthe first data packet is used for the regenerating packet headers, thenumber information indicating a number of the data packets.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 15, wherein the decoding module further includes, aconstellation demapping block that demaps the data of the PLPs fromconstellations, a bit deinterleaving block that bit deinterleaves thedemapped data, and a LDPC decoding block that processes the bitdeinterleaved data with LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) codes to outputBB packets.